OC Heroes
by Kaity the Chameleon
Summary: Metal Sonic captures the original Sonic Heroes, and it's up to their friends to follow in their footsteps and save them and the world from destruction.
1. The Original Sonic Heroes

**New fic! Yay! Okay, onto Copyrights: All characters you know from 'Sonic Heroes' belong to SEGA. Kaity the Chameleon belongs to me, Waffle the Fox (C) to Waffle the Fox, Snow the White Tiger belongs to Rad-Red (DeviantART name), Raket the Hedgehog belongs to RaketTH (Another DeviantART name), Light the Fox is copyrighted to...um...I'll just call 'im Light the Fox. (I don't know what else to call him by), Sonia is (C) Dic and whoever made 'Sonic Underground'. Cloud the Hedgehog, Acio the Black cat, and Anash the Echidna all (C) to Fauxmon. Wow, pretty much got the whole cast here.**

Chapter 1: The Original Sonic Heroes

Knuckles burst through the open door of Sonic and Tails' house, panting hard and looking angry. Sonic, looked up, unconcerned about the echidna's sudden appearance.

"Hey Knux," Sonic greeted, "Master Emerald get stolen again?"

"Yes, and I'm sure it wasn't Rouge this time!" Knuckles growled.

"Well then, who?"

"If I knew that, I'd be chasing them down, wouldn't I?" the red echidna snarled.

"Well, yeah." Sonic shrugged. "But why're you here? Shouldn't you be out, searching for your emerald?" Sonic added a dramatic tone to the last sentence. Knuckles ignored him and went on.

"The guy said he'd give the emerald back if I met him here."

"And...Did he say why?"

"Well...no." Knuckles admitted. "It was actually on a note." Tails, who had been listening to them talk now spoke.

"So...the guy who went through the trouble of stealing the Master Emerald, said he'd give it back if you came to our house?" Tails' voice had a suspicious tone to it. But Knuckles didn't hear it and nodded. "And you didn't for a second think it was an Eggman trap or something?"

"Um...no..." Knuckles must've had the thought just as Tails mentioned it. "Even if he did try and trick us, he'll have ta get through me first." Knuckles grinned, arms crossed proudly across his chest.

"Somehow, I doubt it." Sonic whispered to his fox friend. Tails chuckled in reply.

"The note said to wait in here." Knuckles explained, sitting on a couch in front of a turned on television.

"Knux, if you wanted ta watch T.V., all ya had ta do was say so." Sonic chuckled. Knuckles ignored the blue blur's snide remark and waited contently for someone to come. After ten minutes it was dark out and someone did come, but it was not what they expected. The window broke, letting in a figure who had the shadows working to his advantage. Knuckles was the first to jump at the sound, Sonic and Tails both jumped to their feet, only to be knocked down by the intruder. Sonic searched around for a light switch while Knuckles blindly fought off his opponent. The blue hedgehog finally found the light switch, and also found himself being knocked unconscious by a cold hand, just like Tails and Knuckles had.

**OoOoO**

Amy, as usual, sat quietly on her couch, the phone only an arm's stretch away. She had to watch Cream that night, and Big was over for a surprise visit. Well, actually, Amy had found him roaming around on the streets, and invited him over. Amy and Cream contently watched American Idol, while Big watched, but was not sure about what he was watching.

"I bet you could do real well if you entered, Amy." Cream said with a smile.

"I probably could." Amy nodded, not at all trying to be modest. "Then Sonic would see me on T.V. and then he'd beg me ta be his girl!" the pink hedgehog swooned. The phone rang and Amy's arm shot out to pick it up. "Hello? Rose residence." She said cheerily into the phone.

"Ames? It's Sonic." The blue hero's voice came over the phone. "I'm right outside, mind if I come in?"

"Sure thing, the door's locked, I'll get it." She said, her heart pounding with excitement. Sonic, her hero, was coming over to _her _house. But something about the conversation seemed different. She thought about it while she went over to the door and unlocked it, as she pulled it open, she realized what had been wrong. Amy could only shriek as a shadowed figure lunged at her and pinned her to the ground. _'Ames! He never calls me that!'_ Amy had realized. Cream and Big rushed in after hearing Amy's scream.

"Any. What's-" Cream stopped, frozen in the door way with Big behind her. The shape, the shape of a hedgehog, it was so familiar. The hedgehog shape knocked Amy unconscious using a certain pressure point. The intruder seemed to tune his head and stare at the two remaining. His eyes glimmered a glowing crimson. Before either mammal had tame to run, the hedgehog figure jetted forward and knocked Cream unconscious, just as he had Amy. Big, now the only one left standing, shook violently, but brought out his trusty rod to defend himself. However, the hedgehog intruder flew past the rod with grace and knocked the over-sized cat unconscious with his friends.

**OoOoO**

Down in Club Rouge, Shadow, Rouge, and O-mega hung out on the top floor of the club; Rouge's personal suite. Neither Shadow or O-mega seemed interested in what Rouge was saying, so she gave up and picked up a magazine to read. O-mega was doing something technical, and Shadow was staring deeply into the green emerald he went no where without. Rouge looked up from her '_Your Diamonds and You'_ magazine (The magazine title is from Snow Miser's 'Murder on Mobious II'. I just thought the title was hysterical, so I'm gonna borrow it.). Her gaze instantly went to Shadow, her face clouded with concern.

"Shadow...you okay?" she asked. Shadow didn't answer; he only continued to stare into the gem. "Shadow, I asked you a question!" Rouge growled, "You could at least humor me!" The black hedgehog still didn't answer. "Shadow the Hedgehog! Answer me, now!" Rouge yelled, threateningly stomping over to Shadow. She was knocked down saw a figure jumped in through the window and knocked her to the ground hard. Rouge looked shocked as she hit the ground. _'How'd he get up here!? We're up about two stories!'_ The intruder left Rouge lying on the ground and snatched the green emerald from Shadow's hand. This brought him back to reality and he jumped on the new holder of the emerald. "Yeah, when it's your precious emerald, it's personal, but when it's you friend, who cares?" Rouge snapped at the tussling two.

"Not now, Rouge." Shadow growled.

"Not now!? Don't tell me what is and isn't now!"

"Can we talk later?" Shadow's air supply was slowly being cut off by a bundle of cords the attacker had decided to use to his advantage.

"No! You're gonna blow me off, just like every other time!" Rouge growled.

"Rouge! Can't you see I'm busy!?" Shadow yelled, throwing down the intruder and glaring hatefully and the bat with the same stare pointed at him. The attacker used this at his advantage and knocked the so called 'Ultimate Lifeform' to the ground and holding a cloth over his mouth, causing the hedgehog to drift off to sleep. The shadowed figure easily did the same with Rouge and broke open the back on a charging O-mega and jammed a screwdriver into his circuit board.

**OoOoO**

Espio and Vector were going through some last minute details of a case they had just solved, just be sure they didn't make a mistake. Charmy had long since been sent off to bed and the girls were already at their apartment, sleeping soundly. Vector yawned loudly.

"Everything right?" he asked after the yawn ended.

Espio nodded approvingly, "yep. Everything's right."

"Good, I wanna sleep." Vector said heading off for his room. A sudden knock on the CDA's door woke Vector up. He turned on his heels to watch the door, no one came this late, and they were closed anyway. There was a sign on the door saying so to anyone who came by. Espio looked over to Vector.

"Should we answer it?" the chameleon asked. Vector didn't answer; something about the sound the knock made, maybe a metallic sound. The crocodile mentally listed everyone he could think of with a metal hand. Only a few came up, but it didn't last before the door was blown off its hinges and into Espio. The chameleon fell down with the door, leaving Vector an open target for the one who blew off the door. He charged forward at the green detective. But Vector was ready and threw the first punch. It connected and pain rushed into Vector's fist. The attacker lunged at Vector and clawed at the croc's stomach. He couldn't dodge in time and had to take the attack. He pressed a hand tightly against the fresh wound and went back into battle. Espio, who managed to push the door and other debris from the door, showered the intruder with Kunai and ninja stars. Several hit, but didn't seem to affect him. He turned his crimson gaze toward the ninja chameleon, and rushed toward him. Espio was ready and blocked the hand coming at his head, actually, Espio could see that the hand was actually a claw. He pushed the intruder away and pulled another kunai out, but never had a chance to use is before the intruder had him out cold on the ground. Vector, who had been watching the scene, knew he had to fight to protect his passed out friend and the sleeping Charmy. His plan didn't fare so well, in a matter of time, Charmy came out because of the noise.

"Vector?" Charmy asked sleepily, "What's happening?" the bee asked.

"Charmy! Get back in there!" Vector demanded, turning his head to look at the half-asleep bee. The shadowed hedgehog took his chance and hit Vector from the side, using the same technique he had used to subdue the chameleon. Now only Charmy was left, wide awake by the sight of the attack. He did as Vector had told him, and flew into her room and slammed the door as the intruder flew at him. The attacker slammed into the door. While he clawed and pounded the door. Espio was now waking up and dragged himself to Vector's desk. His vision was poor, but he could see enough to get help. Espio knew better then the call for help if the intruder was right there, so he quickly typed a note on the computer. The screen was black, but Espio knew they were in a document. They _tap_ of the keys wasn't heard by the hedgehog attacker. Espio couldn't finish his cry for help before he passed out and hit the ground. By then, the intruder had broke into Charmy's room and carried the unconscious bee out, and collecting the other two.

**If anyone can tell me who's kidnapping the Original Sonic Heroes, you get a vritual cookie! And it shows just how observant you are!**


	2. Sonic Heroes: Version 2,0

**Finally got this chapter done. I wasn't sure about these three last update, so I'll add their copyrights now: Laya the Seedrian is copyright Snow Miser, Sumowa the Seedrian (C) to Pyrassion, and Cosmo is (C) 4kids.**

Chapter 2: Sonic Heroes: Version 2.0

The sun crept quietly over the horizon and woke the residence of Station Square. The day was a usual day, cars trying to beat early rush hour, people scrambling in and out of coffee shops to eat before their long day starts, and the three Chaotix girls in mists of all this, walking in-step to the Chaotix Detective Agency. They expected the Chaotix to be hanging out, waiting for a client, as they usually did when they just finish a case. But the Agency stood empty and quiet.

"Hello?" Waffle called out. No response.

"Vector? Espio?" Snow called into the empty agency, "Charmy?" The three still got no answers. "Where are they? They should be here, they _live_ here." Snow wondered. Kaity stepped further into the agency and examined the surroundings; it wasn't until now that they noticed the door was blown off its hinges. Waffle went over to examine it.

"What could've caused something like this?" The tan vixen asked. Snow shrugged, bending down by her friend to also examine the door. Kaity scanned the whole area, only Charmy's door had also been knocked down, which probably meant that Vector and Espio heard the intruder and came out to fight. Charmy, meanwhile, hid in his room for protection. Weapons and blood mixed on the floor.

"Hey, these kunai don't have blood on them...something black." Kaity observed. Snow took the blade and sniffed the black substance.

"It's oil." She announced.

"Oil? Why'd that be here?" Waffle asked.

"I think I know why." Kaity said suddenly, both mammals looked up, curious. Kaity was now sitting at Vector's desk and staring at the computer. "One of 'em tried to get help before they were..." Kaity stopped; she realized she was assuming the worst. "Before the intruder got them." She said, replacing what she was thinking. The chameleon turned the screen for her two friends to see, it was a simple word that caused alarm in most people when they heard it. _'Help'_ One word didn't seem to be finished, but they all could guess that the one who wrote it was in need of help at the time.

"What do you think happened to them?" Snow asked.

"Best scenario, they've been kidnapped." Kaity answered.

"What's the worst scenario?" Snow watched her friends face for a reaction, and didn't get one, as usual.

"Let's not go there." Was all the chameleon answered with. "But, they're in trouble, and we have ta help 'em." Kaity said, standing up. "You guys in?" Waffle instantly nodded. Snow nodded also. "Okay, temporary Team Gracious." The three agreed. They all had the same feeling where to start, the same place they had found a kidnapped victim before.

**OoOoO**

Raket the Hedgehog, a silver hedgehog with a blue diamond pattern on his head, waited contently for his friends, Light the Fox and Sonia the Hedgehog. He paced in front of an Eggman base, but they seemed to be taking longer then usual. A light wind blew gently on the hedgehog's black jacket and red shirt. He stopped his pacing and looked back to the planned escape route, to anyone else, it was just a wall, but holes serve as excellent exits also. Several more minutes passed, still nothing. Raket was debating weather he should go in and look before a familiar voice came from the other side of the wall.

"Get down, Raket!" It was Sonia the hedgehog. Raket obediently ducked behind a fallen scrap of metal that doubled his own size. An explosion blew debris at Raket's hiding spot. As the smoke cleared, Raket dusted off his blue jeans and peeked over to see who was there. As expected, Sonia, an eggplant colored hedgehog with orchid hair and spikes step out, along side an electric yellow fox, Light. Sonia dusted off her dark blue skirt, which was a part of a dress with a red sleeveless top. The top and bottom of Sonia's outfit was separated by a gold band with points on the top and bottom, and in it's center, a circle. Her gloves were unlike most Mobians; her dark blue gloves went just past her elbows. Her red stockings also looked like they needed to be dusted off, which Sonia immediately went to. The hedgehog's boots, which were a dark blue with red toes, seemed to be the cleanest thing on the hedgehog. Light, on the other hand, ignored the dust settling on his red shirt and blue pants and walked over to where Raket stood.

"What took you guys so long?" Raket asked.

"We found something important." Light explained. Light guessed that Raket was interested in what the two had found by the look on his face. Sonia handed Raket a disk.

"Eggman has a plan going on right now." She started to explain, "You remember Sonic, right?"

"Yeah." Raket nodded.

"Eggman's kidnapped him and his friends to power some machine he's making." Light said. "We don't know who far he's got yet, but we have to stop 'im if the world is gonna live."

"So, should we go after Eggman?" Sonia asked Raket.

"Yeah, we can't let 'im get away with something like this." Raket said in a determined tone.

"So...Where do we start?" Light asked. Raket stopped and thought, they couldn't think of a place to start their new adventure.

"For starters," Sonic piped in, "Let's tell the others we'll be taking this mission." The two boys looked at her quizzically, but didn't argue with the female hedgehog. The three jogged off in the direction of their base to tell their friends, and maybe find a place to start their new mission of Team Raket.

**OoOoO**

Laya entered the Chaotix Detective Agency; it was deserted, and was a mess. The orange seedrian was hit with sudden shock. Someone or something had broken in to the CDA. Had whatever made the house call taken the Chaotix? Was Charmy okay? Laya cleared her head of these thoughts and surveyed the room, she was no detective, but could see a struggle had taken place. And a big one at that. Charmy's door was broken down and looked shredded by claws. Something **had** happened to Charmy...Laya gulped at the thoughts racing through her head. Being a detective, Charmy was a target of gangs in the general area. She backed out of the agency. Not wanting to bother and evidence, if they were killed, it must have been here, blood formed a puddle on the ground, it didn't look like enough to kill someone, but it was too much. The seedrian dashed out of the broken room to find her sisters and tell them about what she had found. Laya eventually found them standing in front of Sonic and Tails' house.

"Guys!" Laya screamed, "Something happened to Charmy and the Chaotix!" Sumowa, a rainbow colored seedrian, flipped around after hearing her sister's scream.

"Knuckles and Tails are missing too." Sumowa said, motioning for her sister to come and look. Cosmo, a green seedrian, was already looking around the living room. The window was broken and bits of shattered glass were everywhere.

"Someone must have kidnapped them." Cosmo said, "Or maybe..." Her voice trailed off, she didn't want to think about what could have happened to them.

"Sonic's not here either." Sumowa said, coming out from the kitchen. "I searched to whole place."

"You think maybe they were killed?" Laya asked, fear creeping into her voice.

"I dunno; there isn't any blood here." Sumowa answered. "We should check the Alter again, maybe Knuckles was jus chasing Rouge off." Sumowa looked down to Cosmo as she spoke.

"O-okay." Cosmo agreed. "I just hope nothing happened to them." She added quietly as the three seedrian sisters went back to the fallen Angel Island. They were there in a matter of time, the Alter was still empty, no Master Emerald, no Knuckles. Everything was still on Angel Island.

"Should we go looking for them?" Laya asked.

"Yes...we should." Cosmo answered after a moment of silence. She took the lead as the three left the Alter. They were all thinking the same thing, but didn't want to say anything, leading to an uncomfortable silence between the three. They didn't know, however, that they would soon become Team Earthia once again to save the ones they cared about.

**OoOoO**

Cloud, a cobalt blue hedgehog, ran to the Alter, something felt wrong. Not one was the island floating in the ocean, but something about seemed...dead. Getting there was easy, being a Guardian herself; she knew the quickest routes to Angel Island. As soon as she arrived, she instantly saw that the Master Emerald was gone, but two Mobians stood, searching around.

"Anash! Acio! What're you two doing?" she asked. Anash, a coal black echidna, cast his blood red eyes on the female hedgehog.

"We're looking for a clue as to where the Master Emerald was taken." he growled at the hedgehog, the two didn't get along too well, but they got along.

"Or by whom." A female black cat, Acio, chimed in.

"Mm-hm...Where's Knuckles?" Cloud asked, after looking into Anash's eyes for traces of a lie.

"He wasn't here." Anash answered. The coal black echidna wore his usual look, three metal claws on both wrists, and a leather jacket covering his tan stomach.

"Not when we came." Acio put in. She also was wearing her usual attire: Her long, waist-length hair was tied up in two braids. The red sweater she wore didn't cover her shoulders, but had gloves to match in color. Her plaid skirt was colored with red, rust, and pink color. The cat's tail flicked in annoyance as Cloud stared from her to Anash, showing the big, pink bow tied to her tail with the Talisman of Spirit dangling off it. Cloud wasn't sure to believe them or not, Anash did have a feud going on between him and Knuckles, and Acio liked Anash. She'd probably keep anything a secret if he asked her. The hedgehog grinned; she seemed so different from these two. She wore sweat pants with a sleeveless black shirt, and white gloves. She had long bangs and wore running shoes, seeing as she mostly liked to run for transportation. And she carried her Talisman, the Talisman of Light, on a black choker. Not to mention, she was more of the friendlier one among them.

"If something did happen to Knuckles, I should go find him." Cloud thought out loud, coming back to the task at hand.

"We'll come with you." Anash said as Cloud turned to leave. Cloud turned on her heels to face the black cat and echidna.

"What?" the hedgehog asked, almost letting surprise sound in her voice.

"If something happened, we have to help." Acio said. "That is what a Guardian does, isn't it?" she grinned. Cloud didn't answer for a moment then sighed.

"Fine, you can come with me, but keep up with me." Cloud responded. "I just have to stop and Sonic's to tell him I'll be gone for a while." She took off running to the island's edge, followed closely by Acio and Anash, the new Team Guardian.

**Wow, these are long chapters...okay, one more chapter then the levels and bosses start. It's gonna be like this through the whole fic, unless it's a team-on-team battle, then they're only gonna be two parts to it. And if I get a personality wrong anywhere during the story, let me know, okay?**


	3. Press 'Start' to Begin

**I finished this last night, but it was about 4:30 AM so I decided to go to sleep first.**

Chapter 3: Press 'Start' to Begin

Just as the newly formed team of Guardians arrived at Sonic Tails' house, they saw three other Mobians running away. A chameleon with a color similar to Espio's, a tan female fox and a white tiger. Cloud didn't bother going after them, she was in a rush already. The three dashed down to Tails' workshop, the twin-tailed fox was always in there, but they found no one when they peeked in.

"Tails?" Cloud called out. "You here?" She got no response, so ventured in further with Anash and Acio following. "Sonic?" she called after getting into the house. "Where are you?" She looked around until she got to the living room, destroyed. She took a shocked step away from the scene in front of her. The hedgehog's mind suddenly went back to the three she had seen earlier. It must have been them! But what had happened to Sonic and Tails, then? What did those three do!? Cloud growled, whatever they had done, they'll pay for hurting her friends. "Come on, we're leaving." Cloud barked at the echidna and cat looking at the scene, also in shock.

"Where're we going?" Acio asked, walking quickly to keep up with Cloud.

"We're gonna go find the ones who did that." the hedgehog replied, referring to the mess they had seen in the living room. Which way had they gone? Toward Emerald Coast, she guessed. Cloud set off in a sudden run toward Emerald Coast, Anash and Acio struggling to keep up.

**OoOoO**

"No one on the beach." Waffle reported to her chameleon friend.

"Okay," Kaity sighed, "I gotta go see Tails about something, he said it was important."

"We'll come with you." Snow said, following behind Waffle. Kaity didn't argue, she wanted to get everything done so she could go on with the search without other things on her mind. Mystic Ruin was only a train ride away. The three girls sprinted to the house of Tails and Sonic. As always, the door to Tails' workshop was unlocked.

"I'll be right back." Kaity promised. She closed to door behind her and entered the workshop. "Tails, I'm here." She called into the empty room. The chameleon waited for an answer, but got none. Kaity shook her head in annoyance and crossed to room to a laptop Tails kept everything on. She figured this would tell her what Tails needed to tell her. She looked around until she found a planner with her name written down with an attached document. The purple chameleon pulled it up and skimmed it until she found her own name.

"_The robot Eggman sent had more information on it then I expected, he must have been studying us for a while, I found a file with observations on all of us, most interesting was a section from Kaity's. 'She controls Chaos beyond anything I've ever seen before, her power is almost unlimited.' Based on this, and several other paragraphs of information, I've been led to believe that Kaity could be the Eighth Emerald."_

The chameleon reading the section paled. The 8th emerald? But it disappeared during the Great War. She couldn't be, _'just a coincidence'_ she decided. Closing the window, Kaity rushed out the door where her team was still waiting.

"Find out what ya needed to?" Waffle asked.

"Yeah, kinda." Kaity shrugged. "Come on; let's go search the beach again." Waffle and Snow ran after their chameleon friend.

**OoOoO**

Raket, Light, and Sonia arrived at their base ten minutes after they left Eggman's base. It seemed almost empty, a note they found told the trio that they had went out to search for work for the team.

"Okay, they're not here...now what?" Light asked.

"Let's just leave a note and tell 'em what we're doing." Sonia suggested. Light shrugged and scribbled out a fast note.

"Okay, should we bring anything?" Raket asked, looking around the room.

"I need to get my medallion." Sonia said, walking off to find her keyboard-shaped medallion. That took about a minute. Sonia came back, her medallion now safely around her neck if it ever needed to be used. "Okay, I'm ready." Sonia announced.

"Let's get some food first." Light commented, putting a hand over his stomach, "Running around Eggman's base made me kinda hungry."

"Okay, quick lunch, then we leave." Raket agreed. Though they had agreed on a quick lunch, it seemed to be much slower. They studied the contents of the disk they had found earlier as they ate.

"_My newest creation can't fail! I'll need Sonic and his obnoxious friends to complete it, though. It's very simple; really, I need to use that pesky hedgehog and his friends as a battery of sorts to make the perfect battle machine. With the abilities of those annoying rats, I can finally rule this world and create my Eggman Empire!"_

"He's planning on destroying the planet, Raket." Sonia gasped. Raket looked meaningfully at the screen, there was something about it, it just wasn't how the doctor wrote. Eggman had much pride in his 300 IQ, and used whenever possible. It could be a trap, or the doctor may not have written this at all. They couldn't know for sure unless they went to Eggman there selves.

"Was Eggman in the base?" Raket asked, turning to Light and Sonia. Light shook his head.

"Only robots."

"Alright, we're gonna go look for Eggman, if this really is his plan, we have to stop it." Raket, Light and Sonia rushed out the door and toward Emerald Coast; it seemed like a good place to start.

**OoOoO**

"Where should we start?" Sumowa asked, "There's millions of places they could've been taken to."

"We know that." Laya answered, "We just need to figure out which one."

"Maybe we'll find a clue somewhere." Cosmo suggested.

"What if they weren't even taken out of the zone?" Sumowa wondered out loud, "Then what?"

"Okay," Laya sighed, "Let's start looking around here." Laya pointed to an area that led to an aquatic zone. She cringed and backed away. "On second thought, let's try over here." Laya ran over to the gates of Twinkle Park.

"No, I don't think they'd be trapped in Twinkle Park." Sumowa disagreed. "They're probably miles from here by now. We just gotta find out which way they went." Sumowa spun a circle, examining everywhere she turned. The rainbow seedrian covered her eyes with one hand, and extended the other out with one finger pointed out. She then began to spin in place and stopped after a minute of spinning. "Let's got that way!" she suggested, pointing toward Emerald Coast.

"Are you sure?" Cosmo asked, "It doesn't look like a place they would be taken to."

"That's exactly what they _want_ us to think." Laya grinned, "Let's go!" Sumowa and Laya rushed into Emerald Coast with Cosmo following.

**Okay, next chapter, they start running through levels, they may be short. Just a warning.**


	4. Emerald Coast: Act I

**I finally got this all done! These are taking longer then I thought, so maybe I'll be updating every other day...maybe every two days, depends on if I get stuck or not. Anyway, like in the games, there's gonna be two acts for each stage plus a boss. So this'll be a bit of a long story...Chaos...I'm gonna be workin' on this one forever...**

Chapter 4: Emerald Coast: Act I

Team Raket entered Emerald Coast and Sonia was already looking dreamily at the sea.

"Isn't it beautiful, Raket?" she sighed. She got no response and turned around, "Raket?" She saw Light and Raket had already started running off, destroying every robot they came across. The female hedgehog huffed angrily. "Why are boys always like this?" She followed after her friends and caught up with them just before they ramped off of a lounge chair. Light whooped as the three flew through the air at high speeds. They landed on white stone platforms and continued running.

"These look like old relic walkways, or something." Raket observed.

"An advanced culture, no doubt." Sonia said, "These platforms move into place before we step on them."

"It'd suck if they broke." Light chuckled. Then, as if on command, the next platform plunged down as soon as the three stepped on.

"Light!" The two hedgehogs screamed in unison and the fox.

"How was I supposed to know!?" Light asked, jumping to his own defense. They stopped suddenly stopped and saw that they were now level with another part of the beach. They stepped off and continued. They came across a cannon after jumping across aged and broken platforms.

"Come on, get in." Raket said, jumping in.

"You can't be serious." Sonia said, shaking her head.

"It's the only way up there." Raket pointed out, "I'll go first." True to his word, the silver hedgehog launched himself into the air and landed neatly on the land above. He turned back to signal to the other two. "Come on, it's easy!" he called. Light was next to climb in and fire. The yellow fox flew in accidentally hit into Racket.

"Oops...Sorry, Raket." Light apologized. Raket only shook his head. "Come on, Sonia, you're turn!" Sonia reluctantly climbed into the cannon and fired.

"Look out!" She yelled, seeing that she would crash-land on her teammates. Raket jumped to his feet and caught Sonia before she hit the ground. "Thanks, Raket." Sonia smiled.

"No problem." He smiled back. "Come on, we gotta keep moving." The male hedgehog gently put Sonia on her feet and raced off with Light and Sonia close behind. Time seemed to go by fast as the trio bounded through and smashed robots in their way. The land began to straighten and a large ring appeared in front of them.

"A warp ring!" Light pointed out, "Let's go!" Light now seemed to run faster then the others as the raced to the warp ring and eventually right through it.

**OoOoO**

Cloud raced over the warm sand, kicking it up as she went. Acio and Anash keeping perfectly in-step with the determined hedgehog.

"Is there a reason you've dragged us here?" Anash asked.

"Yes." Cloud answered, stabbing a robot with a near-by beach umbrella. She twirled it between her fingers and stabbed another, then bashed a third.

"Will you tell us?" Anash rolled his eyes.

"Later." The blue hedgehog growled. Dashing forward, seeing that there were no enemies in sight. Anash shook his head, but followed, Acio ran after Anash. The three hit a ramp and flew through the sky before hitting the ground again and going through a loop.

"How is stuff like this possible?" Acio asked, looking down at the ground below her as they reached to top of the loop.

"No one knows." Anash shrugged. To the bottom of the loop and jumped into battle with the group of robots that stood guard. Cloud dashed forward and hit one with her gold-psychic rings. Anash rushed a crowd of the robots and easily destroyed them with the spikes on his wrists. Acio took on the remainder with her bow and arrows; all struck their target with uncanny accuracy.

"Keep up." Cloud said, and dashed past the scrap heap that was their enemies. Anash and Acio followed quickly. Anash eventually got a lead and led them over a white stone pathway that seemed to appear from the ground.

"These're kinda cool." Acio admitted running faster, as if trying to out run the platforms. The hedgehog and echidna sped up and lined up perfectly. They came to the end, and saw that no more platforms were coming. The three pushed off the edge of the last platform and into the air. As they flew, they could see they had more of a chance of falling into the water below them then making it across. They suddenly hit three rainbow rings that were lined up in the sky and got a sudden boost of energy in the air. They landed safely and destroyed more waiting enemies. Several had been sleeping as they arrived. They were taken out quickly and easily. Now Cloud kept the lead and they got from the sandy beach, to a grassy pathway hidden by close walls. The three jumped over a gaping hole in the ground and went off another ramp. This time they could easily land and keep going. The grassy path they ran along began to change back into the sandy beach as they went farther, and eventually ran into a warp ring.

**OoOoO**

Laya ran on the opposite side of Cosmo, away from the tide coming then falling back into the ocean. Sumowa sometimes ran in the water if it came close to the three. A wall made them turn into the water and go up with the first white stone platform. The platforms seemed to be aged and broken for time. They were running over the land when one platform crumbled under them. Sumowa and Laya grabbed onto Cosmo, who could easily float down. They landed on a grassy pathway, which led to another pathway of white rock.

"How come we've never seen these pathways before?" Sumowa asked.

"'Cause we never went out this far." Laya pointed out. Sumowa ignored Laya's logic and followed closely behind Cosmo, who had taken the lead after the sudden fall.

"How long is this?" the rainbow seedrian asked, seeing the path stretch farther.

"It looks like it's getting longer." Cosmo observed.

"Yeah...it is!" Laya exclaimed. The three seedrians ran as fast as their legs could carry them and caught up with the platforms. It eventually stopped and linked with a loop. It was easily past and the three continued on. They came across a sleeping enemy.

"Is...is it _sleeping_!?" Sumowa asked in disbelief. She walked over to the tiny Eggbot and examined it. "It is!"

"Wow, Eggman's not such a good builder, is he?" Laya laughed. "His guards can barely stay awake." The youngest seedrian walked over and poked the robot. It woke up, startled by the three seedrians. Quickly, it drew its gun and shot. The shot knocked into Cosmo and forced her backward. Laya was the first to attack after that, a blast of flames shot from her hands, frying the circuits on contact. "That'll teach ya." She grinned.

"Hey, what's this?" Cosmo asked, sitting up straight and looking through the bars of a cage with a key sitting inside.

"Looks like a key." Sumowa said going closer to the cage.

"A key to what?" Cosmo asked.

"I dunno, let's take it and see!" Sumowa replied, smashing the cage with her power to summon vines. The orange seedrian picked up the key and put it safely into a pocket. "Come on." Laya and Cosmo ran to catch up with Sumowa. One ramp and loop later, the three found more prepared robots waiting for them. Cosmo attacked first this time, having now special abilities like her sisters, she punched and kicked as enemies came at her with jousting sticks and guns. Laya burned the Egg Pawns like she had done to the earlier enemy. The rest were left to Sumowa who destroyed them easily, until one shot managed to get past her defensive vines and hit her. Sumowa stumbled to the ground and the key she held before slipped from her pocket without her knowing. Sumowa shot out a vine and it speared the attacking robot. Laya and Cosmo rushed to their fallen sister when they saw her on the ground.

"You okay?" Cosmo asked.

"I think so..." Sumowa answered. The front of her dress was scorched from the shot. "Hurts a little, but I'm fine." Laya and Cosmo pulled Sumowa to her feet.

"Sure you can still go on?" Laya asked. Sumowa nodded.

"Let's go already." The rainbow seedrian said. She jogged while the others followed. All three eventually went back into a running race for the lead and they flew through a warp ring.

**OoOoO**

Team Gracious raced along the beach, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary.

"Find anything?" Snow asked.

"Nope." Waffle replied. The tan vixen pushed past a couple walking along the beach. "We gotta find 'em before something bad happens." She said, picking up speed.

"If something bad hasn't happened already." Kaity remarked, taking a small led. The three found the same platforms the other teams had found, and followed them. They jumped away from a platform just as another came slamming down on it.

"Light!" Two voices yelled. But the girls heard nothing after that; they landed almost gracefully on the sandy beach. The three ran until the came to a ramp then let the speed of it shoot them into the air and send them through three rainbow rings. As they landed, hey found a cart of some kind with a makeshift drill on the front of it.

"What kinda car is this?" Snow asked examining the vehicle.

"There're only two seats...and no pedals..." Waffle noted.

"Heck, there isn't even a motor." Kaity pointed out. The three suddenly had the same thought and looked at one another with a challenging glare. This went for a minute before all three jumped at the vehicle. Waffle forcefully got in the front seat and Snow jumped into the backseat. Leaving Kaity on the outside of it. "That's not fair, you guys are stronger then me!" the chameleon growled.

"Yeah, probably the reason we're getting the ride." Waffle giggled. "And you're the fastest, which means we'll get to where we need to go faster." Snow nodded in agreement with Waffle's statement.

"Fine." Kaity huffed, "But one of two is pushin' next time." Kaity found that there was a handle on the back of the cart vehicle. She held it tightly and pushed it forward. It went easily along the ground while Waffle steered.

"Waffle, go that way." Snow said, pointing to another white stone pathway that seemed to be getting longer.

"No backseat driving" Waffle commented.

"I think I see someone." Snow replied, ignoring Waffle's comment. The fox looked over and saw no one on the path.

"You're just seein' things." She said, waving it off. The three suddenly went down a hill and quickened. "Kaity, slow down!" Waffle yelled, seeing three well-sized blocks with red 'X's flashing on them.

"I can't!" the chameleon yelled back in anger. Snow looked behind and saw her chameleon friend being dragged across the ground. The blue-eyed chameleon looked up at Snow. "I fell a long time ago, just so you know." She growled. Waffle and Snow searched frantically for the one thing that could possibly save them when the impact happened.

"Who makes a car without seatbelts!?" Waffle cried.

"This isn't even a car!" Kaity shouted from the back.

"We're gonna crash!" Snow yelled, pointing at the blockade ahead. The three braced themselves for the sudden impact, and flew into the sir as the vehicle crashed into the obstacle.

"Wow...didn't see that coming." Waffle said in a relieved tone. The team of three landed and went on to a grassy pathway and into a warp ring just before a dead end.

**Just so you people know, I'm not playing favorites with characters, they're all gonna do something funny over the course of the story. Why? 'Cause no one's perfect, and I love messing with the characters. And they'll be about...six more stages...so, if you want them to go through a spacific place, just let me know and I'll try to fit it in somewhere. You can make it up or take it out of a game, as long as you describe both Acts 1 and 2 and what the boss looks like and it's weak points or if you just have to kill a bunch of other things like during the 'Egg Storm' fight in Sonic Heroes...**


	5. Emerald Coast: Act II

**I finally got this chapter done!**

Chapter 5: Emerald Coast: Act II

Sonia, Light and Raket appeared in another part of Emerald Coast as the Wrap ring they had before entered disappeared behind them. The three let out a breath of air, traveling by warp rings was not as fun as it sounds. You have total control over your destination, but your body feels like a jelly, almost liquid substance. Raket shivered as his senses returned to him.

"Okay guys, let's go." Sonia said after recovering her own senses. Light and Raket nodded and followed behind the female of the group. They started out slow, their legs not fully used to moving yet. They hit an acceleration pad and flew at familiar speeds. They ran a loop and off a ramp. As they landed on the ground, they were greeted by six gun-wielding Egg Pawns. Sonia grinned, already transforming her medallion into a rifle. The six robots were no match for the gun's laser.

"Way ta go, Sonia." Raket grinned. Sonia blew smoke off the gun's muzzle and smiled at Raket. The silver hedgehog turned back to the now clear pathway. "Ready?"

"You bet." Light said, already going forward. Sonia and Raket followed closely, almost lined up with each other. Light was the first to point out a secret passage. "What's that?" the yellow fox asked, pointing at a pitch black hole in one of the walls.

"Looks like a secret passage." Raket noted, looking deeper into the hole. "I can't see anything." He sighed. "One of you guys have a flashlight?" he asked. Light brought out a small flashlight. "Thanks Light." Raket thanked and took the flashlight. It wasn't a strong beam, but it could cut through the darkness.

"What's it look like?" Light asked. Raket climbed in to check.

"Really dark." Raket commented. "And kinda warm."

"That's never a good sign." Sonia muttered.

"I think it's safe, come on, just stay close." Light allowed Sonia in first then followed behind her. Sonia shuttered, it was more then dark and warm in the tunnel, it was moist too.

"This'll ruin my gloves." Sonia whined quietly.

"Don't you have about fifty more?" Light remarked. Sonia ignored the fox following her, her eyes had adjusted and she realized there was not one in front of her. She stopped, causing Light to bump into her.

"Where's Raket?" Sonia asked. There was a silence between the two. Neither had been paying attention to the leader through the tunnel. "Raket?" she called, her voice echoed.

"Hi." Raket's voice came from near by. Sonic jumped, hitting her head on the ceiling of the tunnel. "Of found another secret tunnel, follow me." Raket instructed. The silver hedgehog helped his two friends out of the smaller tunnel and into the bigger one.

"Where does it go to?" Light asked, keeping a hand to the wall like the two hedgehogs.

"We'll find out." Light could imagine a grin on Raket's face as he spoke. After traveling down the tunnel for what seemed like hours, a bright light could be seen at the end of the tunnel.

"Look!" Sonia pointed at the light, though no one could see the hand, "A way out." All three raced forward toward the light. The end of the tunnel led to a stone white pathway, surrounded by a sandy beach, and a red mechanical hawk waiting only a few feet away.

**OoOoO**

Team Guardian exited the warp ring as gracefully as they entered. Also starting at a slow pace due to traveling conditions. Acio was the first to take the lead and led the following echidna and hedgehog through a tunnel and out into a beach where a band of Egg Pawns waited.

"I'll take care of these guys." Anash grinned, jumping ahead and slashing the enemies in two with his sword, Emparo. The coal black echidna grinned in delight. "Too easy." He chuckled.

"Okay, let's keep going." Cloud said, cutting Anash's fun short and taking off. Acio followed by Anash

"I thought it was pretty cool, Anash." The ink black cat offered. Anash only looked at Acio in response. The cat looked away from the stare, seeing her compliment would not get a smile from her crush. "Come on, we're falling behind." She said, quickening her pace and eventually keeping a lead in front of Anash. The three guardians came to a stone door; this one was unlike the rock pathway they had followed to it. This door was a pale red with strange black markings decorating the border.

"What is this?" Cloud asked, examining the markings closely. "It looks strong, yet it feels soft and weak." The hedgehog observed.

"Then I'll take it down." Anash volunteered, slamming his fists together. He pushed past Cloud before she could protest and hit the door's center. It collapsed to pieces on the impact. Acio was the first to enter the room behind the door, it was a dead end.

"Who'd close off a dead end?" she asked stepping farther into the room.

"No one." Cloud murmured, running a hand along the wall. The walls were lined with the same markings as the door had; only the rock was like the path's rock. Acio examined the walls closely and found a thin ring of black.

"Hey guys, I think I found a passage way." She said, pointing to what she had found. She pushed on the lined circle and it fell from the wall, and onto the floor behind the wall. "Should we go in?" the black cat wondered out loud.

"There's no other way." Anash shrugged. The black echidna lifted himself into the hole; it was about the size of a manhole, which forced the three to crawl. It was dark, but the three adjusted to the darkness, it looked like a man-made hole, most likely made ages ago, judging by the stale air that surrounded them. They crawled through the small hole until Anash spotted a light up ahead. "I can see a light." Anash said, crawling toward it with the two girls following. They seemed to go downhill until the light was the only exit. Anash was the first to climb out, followed by Acio then Cloud. The three were blinded by the sudden bright light the sun gave off. Cloud shielded her eyes to look at the path before them, a grassy place, not exactly by the sea, but it could still be heard. As she looked, she saw what she thought looked like part of a wall closing as a blue-panted leg slipped in. Maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her, maybe they were not.

"Come on, there's a path we can follow." Acio said, bringing Cloud out of her thoughts. The two black Mobians continued as their teammate continued to stand in her place. Only Acio stopped to look at her. "Cloud, you comin?" she asked."

"What? Oh, right. Coming." Cloud answered, walking at a fast pace and staring at the now seamless wall. Cloud pushed what she had saw out of her mind as she jogged to catch up with her temporary team. Through another dark passageway and a army of enemies later, they came to a rock pathway with a red, mechanical hawk sitting in wait for them.

**OoOoO**

Sumowa made it out of the warp ring first, and grinned triumphantly.

"I win!" She announced to her following sisters. Laya came through the same time as Cosmo, and the three started off jogging to recover their senses. The seedrians flew off a ramp and onto a pathway swarmed with enemies. Sumowa took the lead and destroyed the Egg Pawns with vines that sprung from the ground as she summoned them. Laya shot fire in all directions to keep her sisters or herself from being harmed. Cosmo, watched the back and destroyed anything that managed to get past her two sisters. The path they followed seemed to stretch on forever, but they finally came to a sandy clearing with a steep stone stairway.

"Where do you think it leads?" Cosmo asked, being the first to it.

"Let's see." Laya said, starting to climb carefully. Cosmo followed close behind Laya, with Sumowa in the back. The stairway was old, and threatened to crumble under the three girls, making them move cautiously over each step.

"Are we there yet?" Sumowa asked.

"Nope...not that long, though." Laya answered, they climbed the remainder of the stairway and stopped on top.

"Okay, now what?" Cosmo asked, the area in front of them was covered in random boxes and blocks and a cage like they had seen before.

"Hey! Look!" Sumowa said, pointing to the cage containing another key Laya was the one to crack it open, this time. Sumowa picked it up and placed it in her pocket for safe keeping once again. "Ready?"

"Yeah!" Laya answered, bolting forward and onto another path. Cosmo came up second and Sumowa third. Laya led her sisters into a tunnel, it was a bit narrow, but they could walk through it. Laya had slowed down because of the darkness, not wanting to chance a head injury on low-hanging rocks. Now the three walked in a row; Laya, Cosmo, then Sumowa.

"Laya, give us some light." Sumowa suggested.

"Let there be light!" Laya said in a commanding tone before lighting her hands with her unique ability. Now it was easier to get through, the tunnel looked man-made, and recent.

"Maybe someone uses them." Sumowa suggested, "Ya know, like, one of those people who walk around the beach with a metal detector?"

"Or maybe someone was expecting us." Cosmo said in a suspicious tone. The statement caused a silence between the three as they walked, if someone was expecting them, how did they know they would come this way? What if they were watching? The tunnel started to widen and a light shown brightly at the end of the tunnel. The three seedrians rushed to the exit happily, trying to forget the feeling they had gotten earlier. Sunlight covered the team of three as the came onto a stone pathway with a mechanical hawk waiting for them.

**OoOoO**

Snow, Waffle, and Kaity dropped out of the warp ring and stretched their jelly-feeling muscles.

"I hate how that feels." Snow grumbled.

"We all do." Waffle replied. "Okay, lets go." The vixen said, the three could feel their power coming back to them. Snow started off with the lead, dodging falling stones above them, oddly enough, it looked like a staircase hanging over their heads. Waffle ran behind Snow with Kaity following behind. One rock fell just over top of Snow. Only Waffle saw it coming and yanked Snow backward. The rock, clearly able to squash even the biggest Mobian they knew, landed where Snow had previously been.

"Thanks, Waffle." Snow breathed.

"Yeah, but now we kinda have a problem." Kaity pointed out before Waffle could respond.

"Leave that ta me." Waffle grinned. She approached the rock now covering their path. She examined it carefully before pulling back a fist and slamming it into the rock before her. She shook her hand lightly as the rock crumbled, clearing the pathway and leaving her teammates dumbfounded. "Piece a cake." She grinned.

"Wow..." Snow managed. While Kaity couldn't manage a single word.

"Come on, guys." Waffle called, climbing over the rubble carefully. Kaity and Snow followed.

"How long have you been able ta do that?" Kaity asked.

"Long time." Waffle responded jumping over the rest of the rubble and waiting for her friends.

"Okay, one obstacle down, Chaos knows how many more ta go." Snow said with a slight smile. The chameleon and vixen nodded in agreement and Kaity now took the lead. They ran through a twisted path, floating on the sea's surface, despite that they were rocks. They looped and ramped over the sparking sea, hitting an acceleration pad as they landed. The three bulleted off the rock path and onto a dirt path, surrounded by grass.

"How many times do we have to go through the same scenery?" Snow asked, slightly annoyed.

"I dunno, I didn't design how this place looks." Waffle said, though she agreed with Snow's point. Kaity didn't bother putting her word in, she already agreed with her following team. As the neared a door, Waffle took the lead and smash them like they were nothing. Behind the doors was a down hill run, Snow led, seeing unstable structures lining the path. Snow, being the most agile, easily kept away from the falling rock and lead the rest of the team safely to what looked like a tunnel. Here, Waffle took the lead. Her sound sensitive ears most helpful at this point. The trio slowed to a fast walk as the entered the black tunnel that seemed to swallow them.

"Keep close, guys." Waffle instructed, keeping her right hand on the wall, Kaity, who had followed second, kept a hand on Waffle's shoulder while she waited for her vision to adjust. Snow, who had adjusted rather fast, kept he eyes focused on the two shadows in front of her. Like every tunnel, they found a light after traveling deeper in a ducking away from low-hanging rocks and cobwebs.

"Maybe the tunnels haven't been used in a while." Kaity suggested.

"Then why're they so clean?" Waffle asked. "Yeah, a couple cobwebs, but if these tunnels haven't been used in Chaos knows how long, they'd be much worse."

"So then, someone else was in here?" Snow asked.

"Or is in here." Kaity added. The girls suddenly could feel eyes watching them, but tried to ignore it. The light grew as bigger and brighter as they walked. The tan vixen leading let her eyes stray away from the light and around the tunnel, and she stopped suddenly, causing her friends to stop just before falling into each other. "What's up, Waffle?" the chameleon behind her asked.

"I...I thought I saw something." Waffle said, looking around again, but they were gone. "Something with red eyes." She shuttered. An awkward silence filled the air around them.

"Um...Come on, let's keep going." Snow said, trying to keep her voice level.

"Yeah, lets." Kaity agreed. After that statement, the three broke into a run to get out of the dark tunnel and into the safe light that waited. They burst through, never so happy to see light, before they looked over to the hawk, glimmering with red metal.

**Okay, This chapter is done, so now, we move onto the boss stage! who can guess the boss? It's already been used once in the game.**


	6. Egg Hawk

**Yes! I finally updated! Anyway, this is the first stage's boss, Egg Hawk!**

Chapter 6: Egg Hawk

Team Raket stood in place, ready for whatever the robot hawk was going to throw at them. The cock pit opened with a _whoosh_, revealing an egg-shaped man at the controls.

"Eggman..." Sonia growled.

"So, you're the ones who've been playing games with _my_ army?" Eggman said, ignoring Sonia.

"You bet." Light said with a smug grin.

"Well, let's see how well you do against my Egg Hawk!" Eggman laughed. The metal bird suddenly flew forward as the three dodged. The bird back away and flew down the pathway, shooting at the pursuing team of three. Light took the lead and easily dodged the bullets flying at them. They caught up with the robot in a matter of minutes. Raket jumped onto the ship and hit hard with a homing attack. Sonia followed with Light on the ground, shooting from her keyboard rifle. The hawk machine came to a stop in a sandy area filled with Eggman's robots, all ready to kill the two hedgehogs and fox. Light and Raket used a homing attack on the ship's haul while Sonia took care of the robots surrounding them and the machine. There was a sudden _crack_ and the glass cockpit split open, revealing the figure controlling the machine. Eggman jutted the robot forward, knocking into Sonia, who fell from the sudden sharp force that hit her back, then backward and back onto a path of rock, leaving Light and Raket standing on the ground with Sonia. Raket was the first to Sonia's side.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Sonia nodded weakly and got to her feet with some difficulty.

"Yeah, I think so..." she answered.

"Guys, he's getting away!" Light called from the path Eggman's machine was following. "Come on, we gotta stop 'im!" Raket and Sonia nodded and took off after the flying machine. Soon enough, the same process was repeated, only this time, Raket landed on the haul and grabbed for the controls.

"It's over, Eggman." He said. The man in the cockpit responded by grabbing the silver hedgehog's arms and pushing him forcefully away. The hedgehog stumbled and fell off the side, leaving Light to gain the controls. The yellow fox grabbed at the controls also, but punched at Eggman as the mad man grabbed him. The doctor's head spun then landed on the ground by Raket. Sonia, who had witnessed the whole thing, looked at the head in horror. Back on the Egg Hawk, Light didn't believe what he was seeing either. Regardless of the decapitation, Eggman shoved the fox off the ship and fled down the path and out of the trio's reach. Sonia picked up the head and looked it over.

"Guys...that was a robot..." she said, looking to the two males.

**OoOoO**

Cloud, Anash, and Acio all stood ready to fight the robot that waited for them. With a _whoosh_ the cockpit opened, revealing the egg-shaped captain.

"So, you're the ones who've been playing games with _my_ army?" Eggman said, sounding somewhat irritated.

Anash smirked, "They got in our way."

"Well, let's see how well you do against my Egg Hawk!" Eggman laughed. The cockpit closed and the metal creature flew away from the three guardians and down a rock path similar the ones they had traveled down before. Cloud spent no time catching up to the metal bird. The hedgehog guardian jumped and landed gracefully on the ship's haul and used her neon rings to tear away at it. Anash grabbed on to the ship's front and pounded away, hoping to break the controls in anyway. Acio followed on the ground, seeing that her team had everything under control. When the Egg Hawk came to a stop on a sandy area with Eggman's own robots waiting for them to come, the black cat took care of the surrounding robots using her bow and arrows which came from hammerspace, like Amy's hammer. The Hawk rocket forward just as Acio got the last robot, she narrowly dodged the ship's metal beak and hit the ground. Cloud and Anash slipped off from the sudden jolt and joined their teammate on the ground. Eggman's hawk started backing away again, and this time, Acio took charge and ripped the cockpit's glass shield from its hinges. Cloud, who made it up to the hawk next, grabbed Eggman and growled.

"What did you do with Sonic and the others?" the hedgehog demanded. Eggman merely looked at the female hedgehog then grinned. His hand moved secretly to a red button, with a quick press, he was ejected from the seat. Cloud had luckily let go in time and watched the doctor fly into the air. Anash readied his metal claws for when the good doctor made his landing in from of them. But, what happened shocked them all, once the doctor seemed to freeze in mid-air, he exploded! Acio's mouth fell open, as did Anash's. Cloud watched bits and pieces rain from the sky in complete shock. It looked like the doctor had committed suicide. The head landed with a _thwoomp_ in the sand, right in front of Acio. The black cat took a step back and the echidna and hedgehog advanced on it.

"It's metal!" Anash screamed in anger, "He tricked us!"

Cloud was silent for a moment before answering, "What if he didn't..." she murmured. The other two looked up in confusion, hoping for a more elaborate answer but Cloud only shook her head. "Come on, we gotta keep going if we're ever gonna find everyone." She said.

**OoOoO**

Just before anything could happen, the three seedrians disappeared from their position and re-appeared in what looked like an on going glass tunnel of some sort.

_Begin Special Stage: Emerald Mission_

"What is this place...?" Laya asked, looking around in fascination.

"I dunno, but-" Sumowa started

"An emerald!" Cosmo shouted, pointing to the green gem that had just flown over their heads.

"Get it!" Laya shouted, taking the lead and chasing the green emerald. Cosmo and Sumowa had no choice but to follow, for a while, the path was empty, but soon filled with colorful spheres. Cosmo accidentally stumbled into one after swerving into Sumowa. The green seedrian felt her speed increase as she pasted by her excited young sister. Sumowa and Laya followed Cosmo's example and collected the colorful spheres. The emerald was almost in their reach now, but they could feel their speed fading away. Now the area had spheres colored blue or red and dotted with yellow stars. Sumowa was the first to get one, and with a burst of speed, ran under the emerald and jumped for it. Her hands closed around the emerald and the tree came to a halt.

"Alright!" Cosmo cheered. The three disappeared from the zone, and back to where they had before stood.

_End Special Stage: Emerald Mission_

Cosmo gasped as the cockpit of the Egg Hawk came open.

"Eggman..." Sumowa growled, stepping protectively in front of her younger siblings.

"So, you're the ones who've been playing games with _my_ army?" Eggman growled.

"Yer dang right, we are!" Laya shouted at the mad doctor.

"Well, let's see how well you do against my Egg Hawk!" he laughed as the glass shield on the red machine closed, sealing the doctor inside.

"Let's get 'im!" the orange seedrian cried, pushing past Sumowa to catch up as the machine hovered away from the three. Sumowa followed after Laya, then Cosmo. The youngest of the seedrians jumped and clung to the Egg Hawks haul. After a quick moment of struggling, she was on the machine and burning the glass barrier that hid Eggman from view. "Hi, Eggman." She grinned. The egg-shaped human looked up at Laya and smiled. Before Laya could react, the doctor's fist shot out and hit her in the stomach, forcing her to stumble off the hawk. She hit the rock path and had her sisters at her side in no time. "He _hit_ me!" she screamed in anger, jumping to her feet and chasing after it again. Cosmo shook her head and followed. Sumowa came after Cosmo and caught up with the angry Laya at a sand covered area. The rainbow seedrian jumped onto the machine and summoned any plant life she could find, which was really just seaweed and other common underwater plant life. Sumowa directed it to holding the Egg Hawk in place, which helped long enough for the three to cause major damage to the ship. Laya was back with her flames, making the haul red hot and almost impossible to walk on, Sumowa summoned more plant life to take out the surrounding guards and Cosmo threw pieces of broken guard bots to help cause damage. That was when Eggman's hawk broke free from Sumowa's hold and jutted away from the three. They started to chase, but Cosmo stopped them, the Egg Hawk seemed to be wobbling, it seemed unsteady. It suddenly rushed forward and took a header into the sea the surrounded the path. Team Earthia stood in shock, why would Eggman do that? They waited; Eggman was bound to pop up on the surface. But nothing.

"Do...Do you think he...?" Cosmo began unsurely, looking toward her sisters. No one answered, and the silence didn't help their feelings at all.

"Come...Come on," Sumowa said, leading her sisters away, "We need to find our friends..."

**OoOoO**

Team Gracious stood ready for whatever stunt Eggman was about to pull. The cockpit opened, revealing none other than Eggman.

"So, you're the ones who've been playing games with _my_ army?" Eggman grinned.

"What've you done with Espio!?" Waffle growled, ignoring the question.

"Well, let's see how well you do against my Egg Hawk!" Eggman laughed. The three looked at him questioningly as the cockpit closed and the Egg Hawk flew away from them and down the path.

"Come on, he's gotta know where Espio and the others are." Kaity said, taking the lead. The chameleon was the first to leap and hold onto Eggman's machine. Waffle and Snow scanned for a weak spot below the hawk, but found nothing. Snow joined Kaity on the machine and forced her sword through the metal haul and managed to make a foot long break in the metal. The inside was like any other Eggman machine, the wires a tangled bunch and other complex-looking parts all fitted to make the heavy metal bird move. Kaity slipped her hand into the machines scar and grabbed a handful of wires and with a quick jerk, they came out with her. The machine suddenly jutted backward the forward, knocking both the tiger and chameleon off and into their fox friend. Luckily, they had just entered a sand covered area, so the fall was somewhat cushioned for them all. Eggman robots instantly surrounded the three as they stood to fight.

"I'll take care of Eggman." Waffle said, "You guys get rid of these things." The other two nodded and Waffle slipped by the machines to get to the bigger threat.

"Ready?" Snow asked. Kaity nodded in reply. Snow dashed at the robots in front of her, sword drawn and ready to strike. Her chameleon friend invisibly charged her share of the enemies. Lasers, bullets, ninja stars, and blades thrashed everywhere as the small battle went on. Meanwhile, Waffle had jumped onto the haul once again and opened the cockpit forcefully.

"Hello, Eggman." She sneered. "Where's Espio?" she demanded. Eggman grinned but didn't respond, the egg-shaped doctor suddenly jutted backward again, forcing a surprised vixen to the ground. As the sat up, she could see the Egg Hawk going farther off, and eventually off the path way. Snow and Kaity just then joined Waffle.

"He got away!" Snow growled, planting her sword blade down into the sand. "Now what?"

"We follow him." Waffle answered, standing up and brushing off sand. "Come on." Waffle took off and her team followed.

**Okay, onto the next stage! Which I have no clue about right now...Oh well, I'll make something up...**


	7. Deserted City: Act I

**I FINALLY got time to finish this! Yeah, I know it's a bit boring, but I'm trying to fight Writer's Block as I write this story...Maybe I'm just not as excited about writing this as I was when I started...Oh well, that sho must go on!**

Chapter 7: Deserted City: Act I

A warp ring closed behind Team Raket as they looked around the city they had stopped in.

"Are you sure that robot came this way, Raket?" Sonia asked, looking around. It seemed to be an advanced city, maybe more high-tech than Future City, only there wasn't a soul in sight.

"I'm positive. Remember? We jumped into the same warp ring." Raket responded with a nod. He also looked around, the place was gleaming with hologram advertisements, abandoned cars, they looked like the typical stereo-typed hover cars, and the roads and sidewalks were casing over a red, slow-moving liquid that seemed to be flowing like a river in one direction. Everything was either colored metals or holograms.

"Well, what is this place?" Light asked, walking up next to his friends, "I don't see a sign around or anything."

"Let's go look around, maybe we can find someone to help us." Sonia suggested. The female didn't wait for an answer, she started to walk further into the abandoned city, determined to find anyone. Raket and Light exchanged an unsure glance before following after her. The road they started on felt warm on the trio's feet, they seemed to be walking across a strong glass of some kind. But something about the flowing liquid looked familiar, but they couldn't think of what it was. Up ahead, Eggman's robots hid in wait for Team Raket to approach. One robot shifted its position, giving away a small, barely audible _squeak_. Only the fox of the group stopped, his highly sensitive ears picking up the robot's shift.

"Guys...wait a second." Light said firmly, stopping to observe his surroundings. The two hedgehogs obliged and looked to Light in hopes of a reason for stopping.

"What's up, Light?" Raket asked, watching his friend.

"I heard something...a squeak, I think." The yellow fox answered.

"Maybe it was a mouse." Sonia suggested.

"No, it was more of an unoiled machine kind of squeak." Light answered, scanning again for the fifth time. That's when he caught sight of the gun shining in the light of the setting sun. "Get down!" he yelled, jumping into Raket and Sonia and knocking them to the ground before a round of gun fire sounded all around the three. Sonia, Raket, and Light jumped to their feet and spread out, avoiding the bullets that came whizzing by all around them.

"It's an ambush!" Sonia cried, taking a step back just as a bullet flew by in front of her. Raket ducked away from an on coming missile and zoomed around the gun fire to get to his team. In a streak of silver, Sonia and Light disappeared, and the three were hanging just above their assailants. The first move was Raket's, he used the telekinesis powers he was blessed with to bend the guns and all other objects that could be used against them. Once that was done, Light lunged down at the now helpless foes and easily took them out. Sonia and Raket landed next to Light as he finished off the remaining few robots.

"Well, that takes care of them." Raket grinned. "Come on, if we're gonna stop Eggman, we gotta keep moving." Raket walked beside Sonia as Light followed behind. The three didn't know about the hole now in the road they walked along, and how much of a danger it truly was. All three almost simultaneously picked up speed and started almost in a foot race along the road. Robots, similar to the ones they had faced just before, would occasionally jump out from behind a hidden area or attempt to snipe them, only to be stopped by one or more of the team members. They came to hills on the roads and picked up speed to continue at a steady rate while going up and down. After a while, they saw a familiar gold ring, spinning slowly and waiting for them.

"There's the warp ring!" Light said, pointing to the ring ahead.

"Good, now let's get out of-" Sonia was cut off by the sudden sound of something exploding and a series of screams. The three mammals stopped and turned around, letting out screams of their own, coming at them was what ran through the city's road, and then they realized why it was familiar, this city's central power was magma.

**OoOoO**

Team Guardian landed safely in the same zone as Team Raket, taking in similar surroundings.

"Hmph, figures Cloud would lead us to some nameless ghost town." Anash said sharply, glancing around the empty area.

"But it looks so high-tech...Maybe more advanced than Future City." Acio observed. The black cat was the first to start down the road. For the first part, things were uncomfortably quiet. But when gun fire sounded throughout the area, the three jumped on the alert and ducked for cover. After a few minutes of this, they realized they were not the ones being fired at, but it was somewhere else. The only hedgehog of the group quickly left her spot and went to search for the reason gunfire was heard. Anash pushed by Cloud to see what was ahead, and found a part of the road with scraps of metal that once were Eggman's robots, bullet holes, bullet casings and burns on the ground. The three advanced carefully on the scene, cautious of any noise that may give away an enemies position.

"What happened here?" Cloud asked to no one in particular.

"Looks like a fight broke out." Anash said, pointing out what everyone already saw.

"Yes, but why?" Cloud said, "Why here? There's no room to fight, really." That was true, it was nothing more than the road they had been traveling on before.

"Well, what ever the reason, the robots lost." Anash shrugged. No one said anything else as they continued back to the path they had chosen to follow. The quiet time gave the gang a chance to think about what they were doing there.

"What do you think happened to the Master Emerald?" Acio asked quietly.

Cloud shrugged, "I dunno, but I think it may have something to do with Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails' disappearance." _'And I have a feeling those three from before have answers we want...'_ she added in her head. Suddenly, Cloud felt someone tackle her to the ground. Her first reaction was to attack, but then saw it was Anash as he pulled her to her feet.

"Come on, we're being shot at, in case you haven't noticed!" he growled, yanking her along. In all honesty, the female hedgehog hadn't heard the gun fire, and she didn't know the bullet landed where she had previously been. But now she heard them, they were coming from everywhere, and it was impossible to pinpoint one's location without being distracted by another. Acio seemed to be having the most trouble keeping up, she had long since brought her bow and arrows from hammerspace and shot any assailants she could manage. As Acio pointed her arrow at one of the team's attackers, another hid with Acio's back facing it. Quickly, its gun was loaded and locked on target. Anash saw this happening and dashed at the robot, but he didn't get there before the shot rang through the air and Acio fell to the ground in pain. The black Echidna tackled the robot with such force; anyone would already by in pain as they contacted the walkway a foot below. The robot, unable to escape Anash's grip and reach his dropped weapon, was forced to take Anash's blows before on dented the metal and destroyed the machine. This one show of power stopped any other assassin robots. The one who had been killed had apparently been the big boss of the group. Cloud was already tending Acio's wounds after seeing it was safe to be still. The two could hear the frantic foot falls of scared robots running from the echidna who had just mercilessly killed their boss and turned their attention to their fallen comrade. Acio was still on the ground, clutching her side it pain. Anash kneeled down beside the black cat and carefully removed her hand from the wound. It was the first, and most likely last, time Cloud or anyone had seen Anash so gentle. The wound ended up being only minor; it would heal itself in a matter of days. The cat was slowly helped to her feet by Cloud and Anash.

"You okay?" the only male of the group asked. Acio nodded, gritting her teeth from the pain. "Maybe we should find a hospital, just in case." The male went on to suggest. But the agreement was to keep going and scream as a rush of magma that had once been flowing under their feet came quickly at them.

**OoOoO**

Laya, Sumowa, and Cosmo landed on a path with the same flowing magma moving beneath them as it was everywhere in the city. Laya took to the warmth immediately, with a grin on her face.

"There's magma under us." She observed. Cosmo and Sumowa both jumped at their little sister's observation.

"Why?" Cosmo asked, now relaxed that they were not falling into the lava previously spoken of.

"I dunno, maybe they like it, I do." Laya smiled.

"Ya mean the people who live here?" Sumowa asked, her fists placed on her hips.

"Yep." Laya nodded.

"So, what people, Laya?" Sumowa gestured with a hand to the empty buildings and cars around them. "This place is vacant." The oldest seedrian pointed out.

"Well, when people _did_ live here, maybe they liked it." Laya answered. The green seedrian on the group could feel someone or something watching them. As she turned to confirm her feeling, all she saw was the fading red of eyes hiding near by. Cosmo's body stiffened at the sight.

"Laya, Sumowa, maybe we should keep going." She suggested, tearing the other two seedrians away from their fight.

"Good call, Cosmo." Sumowa said, ignoring the glare her sister was throwing her. "Let's go." The three went down road in a line, oldest seedrian to youngest seedrian. It wasn't until they came to a cross road where the three had very different choices.

"I say we go forward." Cosmo said.

"I think we should go right." Laya put it, pointing to the right.

"I'm the oldest, I say we go left." The remaining seedrian said. With out waiting for the other two, Sumowa went down her chosen path and her two sisters eventually caught up with her. It was quiet, too quiet. A rustle in the bushes startled the three and made them suddenly aware of a cannon aimed at them.

"Outta the way!" Cosmo screamed, diving to the left. The other two followed Cosmo's example, and just in time too, the cannon had been loaded and fired just as Laya and Sumowa hit the ground. Sumowa was the first to her feet. She grabbed her orange and green sisters and took off down the path, running as fast as her legs would carry her while supporting her two sisters. The gun fire seemed to fade away as the three ran, unstopping, never looking back. When they finally did stop, they took the next available turn and headed in that direction. With a warp ring laying just a head of them, the three found renewed strength and speed as the dashed. But stopped at the sound on an explosion and a river of magma coming at them, all three let out a terrified scream.

**OoOoO**

Team Gracious was under fire as soon as they landed on the ground. But the three were used to intense shoot outs, and dodged and returned fire just as quickly as they came.

"Outta bullets." Kaity grumbled after firing the round she had.

"We can still fight 'em." Waffle said boldly.

"Right, we'll have to trick them." Snow nodded. "Kaity, you attack invisibly. Waffle, take care of them however you like. I'll sneak up from behind." The white tiger told her team. The chameleon and fox nodded and set to their work, Waffle ran from the hiding place they had shared and went at the closest enemy, showing them just how powerful and fearless she could be. Kaity came out next, invisibly making her way to the middle of the field and striking quickly with kunai and her own attacks. Snow had kept down and quickly ran around the side being careful not to be seen and hit the last of the enemies hard with her Dragon Fang sword and attacks. They battle was over soon, the robot hit men were easily taken out and ran.

"Well, that was fun." Waffle said sarcastically.

"At least we know we're on the right track." Kaity countered.

"And how do we know this?"

"The more enemies, the closer we are to what we want."

"...Makes sense." Waffle shrugged. "Let's go before come of 'em come." The tiger and chameleon nodded in agreement and followed after their fox friend. Something didn't seem right to the three, it was as if they were being watched. Their paces quickened, staying perfectly in-step and keeping their cool as they went. A shadowed movement behind a car made the pace turn into a jog. The sounds of metal dragging across metal sent a shiver down the three girls' spines and lead them to frantic running down the street. Only Snow looked back in time to see red eyes disappear into the surrounding area. Snow started to slow down, signaling for the other two to do that same.

"I thought this place was abandoned." Waffle said, breathing deeply.

"Robots aside, Waffle's right." Kaity said, referring to the earlier battle they had fought. "This place is supposed to be abandoned."

"Well, it isn't, apparently." Snow said, looking around for another look at what she had seen just before. "Someone else must be here."

"Or some_thing_" Kaity added. "Something that wasn't us out of here."

"Well then, let's not disappoint it." Waffle grinned, "We'll be gone as soon as we find a way to leave."

"Right, but for now, let's get out of here; the ground is going the wrong way." Snow said as her team started walking, but this comment made them stop.

"What do you mean, 'the ground is going the wrong way'?" Waffle asked suspiciously.

"Exactly what it sounds like." Snow retorted, pointing to the magma flowing beneath their feet. "When we got here, it was going that way." The white tiger pointed forward, "Now it's going that way." She pointed behind them. Waffle and Kaity looked down at the ground, it _was_ going the other direction, and at a fast pace, almost like it was going over a waterfall. Team Gracious could sense there was a problem, so quickly got on their way to find the exit. A sudden, loud explosion of some sort made them stop and turn, but then turned back and ran as quickly as they could, screaming. A fast flow of magma that had once been below their feet not rushed at them.

**Yes, don't remind me this chapter was really boring, and didn't seem to accomplish much for any team. But, what about to one stalking them? And why is the Magma suddenly flowing out of control and after the four teams? I'll update as soon as I can next time.**


	8. Deserted City: Act II

**Yes! It's finally done! Hopefully other updates can happen faster then this one...**

Chapter 8: Deserted City: Act II

The two hedgehogs and fox dashed down the slowly emptying path as the magma surged after them.

"Whose bright idea was it to have lava as a power source?" Light panted.

"Chaos knows...but maybe they were on ta something." Raket answered, keeping his pace in-step with his team.

"Wha?" Light asked, looking to his friend with a confused expression.

"Think about it." Raket began, "Lava is kind of a natural renewable resource. And the power could be used if they could control it."

"True, but right now, the natural resource is trying to kill us!" Sonia cut in. The trio quickened their running and hit a loop. As expected, the lava didn't make the loop, it simply flowed on, now closer than ever to Light, Sonia and Raket.

"That didn't help at all!" Light screamed, kind of angry.

"As long as we don't run into an Eggman robot, we should be fine." Sonia said, trying to look on the brighter side. As if taking Sonia's cue, a handful of robots came out from their hiding places to challenge the three.

"Oh look...robots..." Raket mumbled.

"Just jump over 'em! It'll be faster." Light said, leaping over the small herd of Egg bots. The two hedgehogs followed suit and the robots were destroyed by the faster flowing lava. Fortunately for Team Raket, the robots somehow slowed down the lava and put a few more feet of space between them. The road they ran across was now only a glass casing, and somehow was not burning from the lava. The three came to a platform with a metal top and had now empty tubes on the side, presumably where magma had before flowed. Blocks slowly emerged from the ground, making a stairway to higher ground.

"How in..." Sonia started, staring at the blocks that had came before them. Raket interrupted her by grabbing her and Light before springing upward and landing on the first block.

"Not a lot makes sense here." Light observed, following Sonia and Raket to the next block. Five jumps later, they were on a platform similar to the one where the blocks had come and saved their lives. The lava below had to slowly build up to reach Team Raket's new height.

"Well, looks like we're safe for now." Raket sighed in relief. Raket was suddenly knocked down as a hot purple chameleon, a sandy tan vixen, and white tiger suddenly rushed by, coming taking off down the west side of the platform.

"'Scuse us." The tan fox said quickly as she followed after her chameleon and white tiger allies. Sonia and Light hurriedly helped Raket to his feet. The eggplant hedgehog glared meanly after the rushing three girls.

"How rude." She huffed. "Just pushing by us like that."

"Sonia, it's fine." Raket responded. Knowing Sonia, she would gladly chase down the three girls who had just passed and make them apologize to her love interest. That in itself would be a bit embarrassing.

"No, they pushed you down, and didn't apologize. Stay here, I'll bring 'em back and make 'em." Sonia said, already taking her lead west ward.

"Sonia! It's fine! I...Sonia! Son...Ugh..."Raket gave up his attempt to stop the female, "Come on, Light, let's go stop Sonia." The silver hedgehog sighed.

"Before she does more to the three then she should?" Light sneered.

"Of course." Raket shrugged, following the way Sonia took off the side followed by Raket. It took some time, but two males eventually had Sonia, and the team of three she was pursuing, in their sight. Every now and then, a member of the team being chased would glance back, which, Raket and Light guessed, meant that Sonia had either before tried to make them stop by shouting or one of the three, just by chance, glanced back and alerted her teammates they were being followed. But something else was bothering Light, something he couldn't quite place. As the opposing team leapt all at once over to another hexagon-shaped platform, Light realized what it was. The yellow fox glanced behind him, nothing following...something happened to the lava, and he had a bad feeling about it. The two hedgehogs and fox made it to the same platform, which the running team was already more then half way across. As they approached the edge, a stream of lava burst up from the ground, startling the three girls to a stop. They turned around quickly, facing their followers. Only Light seemed aware of the surrounding area, geysers of lava shooting from the ground, Raket was trying to convince Sonia there was no need to go to such extreme measures for something like being knocked down, but Sonia held her ground, never looking away from the three pairs of eyes that stared them down.

**OoOoO**

Acio, still in pain from her previous wound, ended up being carried by Anash during they're run for their lives. Though the black cat didn't mind, Anash had to slow down due the extra weight he was carrying.

"Come on! Go faster!" Cloud called, running backward to talk with the two.

"I'm trying!" Anash growled at the hedgehog. The sun was starting to set, making the still nameless down look like something out of a Wild West movie, aside from the hover cars and lava. Acio pointed out a stair way ahead of them, which the echidna and hedgehog climbed quickly, hoping the change in height would slow the lava's flow. Which it did. Team Guardian now had at least a half a mile advance on the chasing lava. The glass casing for the road turned into a metal platform as they jumped off the road's edge and landed neatly. Lava poured over the road's edge, slowly building up on the ground below.

"Wow, no wonder no one lives here..." Acio muttered as the three watched the lava for a moment. Acio was now standing on her own, claiming she felt good enough to run. Not another minute was spent watching as a block of metal suddenly emerged from the ground beneath their feet and sent them skyward. Another came, and another. Forming a stair way. Cloud, Acio and Anash jumped from block to block, racing to the glass platform that waited at the top. The team of three landed, and scanned the area. The platform they now rested on had an empty glass road running east to west, and far down that road, Cloud spotted a familiar looking chameleon, fox and tiger running down the road, away from them, heading west. The cobalt hedgehog growled and her forest green eyes flashed dangerously.

"Come on, this way." She instructed, taking off after the three without waiting for an answer. Acio and Anash exchanged confused glances as they raced to catch up with the determined hedgehog. Surprisingly enough, the path they followed was almost completely vacant of robots. But it could have been because Anash killed the boss man robot before, they figured. But right then, robots were not what concerned Cloud. The memory of the three in front of her running from Sonic and Tails' shared Mystic Ruin home came to her mind, fresh as the day she got said memory. A familiar anger built in Cloud, willing her to go faster, and forcing her team to push themselves to keep up. The team being perused never looked back, but they did seem to speed up. The leading hedgehog watched the three's movements like a hawk, noting their movement and speeds, readying herself for a fight, if need be. The tan fox girl jumped onto a block, turning quickly to heave the chameleon on, following the snow white tiger. The block they had jumped to started moving, but the three wasted no time getting to the next one, which stood still in its designated place. Now with Anash and Acio caught up, Team Guardian jumped from the edge of the platform and toward the moving cube in the air. Acio, who had taken up the rear, slipped during her jump and grabbed onto Anash automatically, who grabbed onto Cloud's ankle just before feeling himself start to drop from his and Acio's weight mixed with gravity. Cloud, who had taken the lead and never gave up on tracking the other team down, just caught the edge of the floating cube before it went by. The cobalt hedgehog hefted herself onto the moving block, helping Anash and Acio up in the process. Seeing that their original target landing place was out of reach by far, the three guardians found an alternative route, hidden in the platforms underside.

"This way." Anash instructed, finding the best way out. Acio jumped after him while Cloud reluctantly followed. Those three...whoever they were...had gotten away _again_. Chaos knows how much they've done since last time Cloud had found them. _'Just forget about them for a second. You need to get everyone out of here!'_ a tiny voice of reason told her. The hedgehog, not in the habit of fighting with herself, push the three out of her head and lead the black mammals of her team back onto the road they started on. Anash looked around, the place was still vacant, and the lava chasing them had stopped. "Well, now what?" he asked his female teammates, slightly annoyed.

"We get out of here." Cloud answered, scanning the area around her.

"How 'bout we ask them?" Acio suggested, pointing to three seedrians walking together not so far from Team Guardian's location.

"Eh, it's worth a shot...Let me handle the talking." Anash insisted. Cloud saw nothing wrong with this and nodded her approval. As they approached the three, the hedgehog suddenly got a reminder of Anash's way of talking to people and regretted agreeing. But it was too late to stop him; the coal black echidna strode over to the three seedrians, female, according to how they dressed. "Hey, how do we get outta here?" Anash asked, in a rough, almost demanding voice. An orange seedrian turned around, startled by the voice behind her. There was a silence as neither side spoke. "Well? You gonna answer, or what?" The Guardian of Darkness growled. A rainbow seedrian, most likely oldest, stepped between Anash and the little orange seedrian child. Anash's eyes narrowed at the bold seedrian. She said nothing, only stood her ground. Cloud could see this was going right into a fight; she stepped up at Anash's side and tried to talk with him. Before she could open her mouth, the echidna swung a fist out at the opposing Seedrian, who dodged and took the orange one with her. The green seedrian came next to the other two, now a fight was unavoidable.

**OoOoO**

"Laya! Stop the magma!" Cosmo screamed in fear, running just a fraction of an inch behind her sisters.

"Yeah right, what am I gonna do? Talk to it?" Laya asked sarcastically.

"Right now, it's worth a shot." The middle child answered.

"Less talking, more running." Sumowa interrupted, getting a small sprint of speed. The three rounded a sharp corner, which their following substance had no problem getting through. A round corner was next, then a sprint up a glass casing stairway. As they reached the top, they hurried behind a metal block that stood dead center of the path. The three leaned against it, in desperate need of a break. The lava crashed into the hiding place of Team Earthia, but went around it, like water moving past large rocks in a stream.

"Actually, Cosmo, it's considered lava now." Laya grinned. Cosmo rolled her eyes, not yet ready to deal with her younger sister's point.

"That's not the point." She growled in response. Laya opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by Sumowa's hand.

"Just stop. Okay?" the rainbow seedrian sighed. "We need to find a way out...without getting burned to a crisp." She added the last part quickly; instead one of the other two had an idea.

"If we just wait for it to pass, we could just walk." Cosmo suggested.

"That's actually not a bad idea, Cosmo." Laya admitted. "But, there's one problem."

"What's that?"

"We don't know when the lava's gonna stop! We could be trapped here for days!"

"Or maybe just a few minutes." Sumowa said, pointing to the already lessening lava. Laya watched for a moment before speaking.

"Or a few minutes." Laya repeated. As predicted, the lava flow stopped shortly after, give or take 5 minutes. The road was now mostly cleared of all lava, leaving a free path for the Earthia team to travel down. "Okay, so let's go." The youngest of the three took off, full speed down the road, the older two rushing to catch up. In a matter of minutes, the three reached a platform with several smaller platforms circling slowly around it. Going with her intuition, the oldest of the bunch suggested they keep going forward, and they did. Up to the point they hit the end of the road, a dead end. The three stood, staring at the empty space, as if a road would appear if they willed it.

"Hey, how do we get outta here?" a voice from behind asked. Laya turned around first, startled by the voice's sudden presents. Neither side spoke. "Well? You gonna answer, or what?" The echidna in front of them demanded. Sumowa, sensing this echidna could be a threat to her little sister, stepped between him and Laya. The echidna's eyes narrowed at her, but Sumowa stood planted in her place. A female hedgehog came up by the black mammal in front of them; she looked like she also saw this was leading right into a fight. Before the new comer had a chance to talk with her ally, he swung a fist out at the two seedrians. Sumowa reacted quickly and pulled Laya out of harm's way and landed gracefully on the ground. Cosmo came up by Laya and Sumowa, ready to defend against the ones who had just attacked her sisters.

**OoOoO**

Team Gracious ran as fast and as hard as they could manage the lava following close enough that if the three slowed down for even a fraction of a second, the lava could easily sweep them off the path. Their footfalls hit the ground lightly as they raced up a stair way, taking then two at a time. This gave the three detectives a foot of space between them and the pursuing substance.

"Now what?" Snow panted, casting a glance back at the lava that once again followed. Waffle looked around, there was _always_ a way out of a tight spot. Aqua green eyes finally landed on a floating cube of metal.

"There!" Waffle cried, pointing at the block. "We can stay up there until it passes." The tan fox girl didn't wait for an answer; she leapt gracefully onto the block and backed to the center, stumbling on a barred cage as she went, leaving room for her friends to land. The following chameleon and tiger had no problem copying the fox's movements and were standing on the cube's edge as the lava below flowed quickly.

"What's that?" Kaity asked, pointing to the cage lazily.

"There's a key inside." Waffle noted, examining the object.

"Well, keys lead somewhere." Snow shrugged, smashing the weak cage bars with her 'Dragon Fang' sword. The white tiger grabbed the key and placed it in a pocket for protection. "We'll find out what this key unlocks." She smirked, patting the pocket.

"Right, in the meantime, let's get outta here." Kaity said, crossing her arms over her chest. The other two nodded in agreement, seeing the lava passed, they landed carefully on the glass path they started on, nothing but a straight road for a long time.

"Alright, let's go." Waffle said, pulling Snow and Kaity along with her. From what the three could see, any enemies readying an ambush for them had been destroyed by the liquid threat that had already passed. The three were perfectly in-step as they went, making the other pairs of footsteps clear to the ever-alert chameleon in the group. Though she didn't turn and acknowledge them, but, kept on running as if she heard nothing.

"Come on, we can probably get farther on higher ground." Kaity said, choosing to keep her friends and teammates as oblivious to their followers as she could. Waffle nodded slightly and suddenly sprang up; landing on a block similar to the one they had seen before. Kaity jumped next, not nearly as graceful, due how sudden it was. Her tan friend managed to get a hold on the chameleon and heaved her onto the block. Snow was the next up, making the jump, but just barely. Suddenly, the block started to inch around in a circle.

"Next block." Snow said, jumping with her team in unison and landing on the still block. It was a simple leap from the block to the platform then, they straight forward, Kaity taking the lead. She bumped shoulders with a silver hedgehog wearing a black jacket, but didn't stop; she had other things that now came to her mind. The Chaotix, for instance, were they alright? And what about what Tails had found about her? Where was he, for that matter? Waffle, who was more aware of what was going on, raced by the trio of two hedgehogs and a yellow fox.

"'Scuse us." She called back politely. Snow raced by her side. The tan fox knew the leading chameleon well enough to see she was in thought, best leave her be, she figured. Snow tapped Waffle's shoulder, alerting her that she too had gotten lost in forgotten thoughts.

"Hey guys, someone's following us." Snow pointed to a female hedgehog, with orchid hair, pursuing the three relentlessly.

"Oh great..." Waffle murmured, annoyed. She tapped the chameleon's shoulder. "Kaity, we got company." She said. Kaity, brought out of her thoughts, looked back, the hedgehog following them had her mouth moving, but nothing could be heard.

"We don't have time for this." Kaity groaned. As she looked back again, the silver hedgehog she had only been half aware of before was following, along with a yellow fox she had missed all together. The chameleon growled and cursed the luck that always found a way to elude them.

"See if we can lose 'em on the platforms." Snow said, pointing forward.

"Right." Waffle nodded. The three lined up and launched off the side of a platform and landed on another, they bolted across. Snow glanced back, their pursuers had landed and coming at them, full throttle. The tiger's eyes looked ahead of her just in time for her reflexes to react, a geyser of lava spouted dangerously close to the three as they halted on the edge.

"Great...Just our luck." Kaity grumbled, in no mood to fight, but knowing full well one was about to happen. She and her friends turned to face the opposing team, the female hedgehog standing in place, staring down Team Gracious. No turning back now.

**Yes, I know some of the ideas for them going into a fight are stupid, but I wasn't thinking too good when I wrote it...Dang Writer's Block...Anyway, I'm hoping to get the Team vs. Team battles up sometime next week.**


	9. Team vs Team

**Yay! It only took me one day to write this!**

Chapter 9: Team vs. Team

_Team Raket vs. Team Gracious_

Sonia took a step forward, these three, whoever they were, had obvious intentions of a fight. But, just before another move could be made, the three girls disappeared from sight.

_Begin Special Stage: Emerald Mission_

Team Gracious suddenly appeared in a tunnel similar to the one Team Earthia had before gone into before their showdown with the Egg Hawk. None of the three girls could speak before a shining yellow emerald flew past them.

"Was that a..." Waffle started, staring after the fast-paced gem.

"A Chaos Emerald?" Snow finished.

"But what's it doing here?" Kaity wondered.

"We'll find out later, we gotta get it before someone else does." Waffle said, starting them off in a run to keep a pace with the emerald. The emerald seemed to increase in speed. But, as the three soon found out, they were slowing down. "Come on, we gotta catch it." Waffle said, willing herself to move faster, or the emerald to go slower. The tan fox wasn't watching where she was going, and ran into a line of rainbow colored spheres, propelling her forward. Kaity and Snow followed, seeing its effects.

"Bomb!" Snow shouted, pointing to a small array of bombs set up on either side of the track. Kaity maneuvered down the center and quickened their pace by directing them toward another cluster of rainbow spheres. Snow, being the closest, reached out for the emerald.

"Almost got it..." She said, stretching her arm as far as it could go. Waffle broke off of the team's triangle formation and collected red spheres dotted with small yellow stars. That was the final boost they needed. Waffle dashed forward, jumped into the air and closed her hand firmly around the Chaos Emerald on the run.

"Got it." She grinned, slowing down to a brisk walk. Team Gracious once again disappeared and came back to the platform with Team Raket waiting on the other side.

_End Special Stage: Emerald Mission_

Sonia was the first to attack; she rushed forward, and landed a single punch on Snow before Kaity tackled Sonia from the side. The hedgehog hit the metal ground with a _thud_. The eggplant colored hedgehog transformed her keyboard medallion into a rifle and aimed at the chameleon standing only inches away, holding kunai at the ready. Light was the first to move forward, though Sonia had more chance of hitting her target than Kaity, he had to be sure she was okay. Both the rifle and kunai sliced through the air at once, making Light move faster to evade the shot, but was stopped by Waffle. A fast punch to the stomach sent Light to the ground in surprised pain. At the same time, Kaity hit the ground; the energy bullet skimmed over her shoulder, but had enough force to knock her down. The kunai slid only centimeters from Sonia's head and clattered to the ground. Raket, seeing that it was no longer useful to find a peaceful solution, ran at Waffle. But quickly backed off as a blade swiped the air only inches from his chest. Snow Stood between Raket and her teammates.

"Snow! Duck!" Kaity called out suddenly. Snow, who learned to take her friends advice, quickly ducked down as a light orchid beam sailed over her head.

"Thanks." Snow quickly thanked. The chameleon only nodded, rushing at her opponent again. Raket took another step back as 'Dragon Fang' cut the air once again. The silver hedgehog looked around for a weapon to use and found it. Several boxes had scattered around the area. Using his telekinesis, he carefully picked up a crate that sat behind Snow. The box took was covered in a faint glow as it lifted and propelled forward, hitting its target. 'Dragon Fang' fell to the ground, along with its owner. Kaity appeared in front of Raket, blue eyes watching him coldly. The chameleon's foot swung out, and hit the hedgehog's side, placing him on the ground not too far from Snow. Light reluctantly swung at Waffle, who had no problem dodging. The entire thing, all six noticed was a silent battle. Barely a word was spoken to another Mobian apart from the occasional warning of the other teams attack. Both Raket and Snow were on their feet and fighting once again, Kaity and Sonia were in a tangle of energy bullets and ninja weapons, while Waffle and Light threw kicks and punches at the other. Snow maneuvered around Raket's next telekinesis attack and hit the silver hedgehog hard, sending him stumbling off the too close edge.

"Raket!" Sonia and Light screamed in unison. With their guard temporarily down, Kaity and Waffle switched off opponents and sent them falling as well. Team Raket fell, all three looking to one another, their hearts pounding hard. A warp ring opened up beneath them and moved them to safety.

**OoOoO**

_Team Guardian vs. Team Earthia_

"Anash!" Cloud scolded the black echidna at her side, "We can't just attack whoever we want." Anash did not respond, only glanced at his hedgehog teammate quickly before turning back to the opposing team. Acio came up on Anash's left, standing ready with the arrows she had pulled from hammerspace, much like how Amy gets her hammer. The hedgehog let out a sigh; of course Acio would jump at the chance to fight alongside Anash...Team Earthia had already taken to a triangle formation, Sumowa leading.

"Isn't there another way?" Cosmo murmured loud enough that her sisters could hear.

"They tried to hurt Laya...There's no other way." Sumowa said with cold determination. Cosmo sighed, she didn't like to fight, but if she had to, she would. The green Seedrian took her place next to Laya, who also waited for the first attack. Anash stared down with Sumowa, a test a wills. Neither of the two batted an eye before Acio sprinted forward and hit the oldest of the seedrians head on. She stumbled backward, falling into Laya and Cosmo, who quickly helped their sister to her feet and went into battle themselves. Laya, more willing to fight, went fire against bow and arrow with Acio, Sumowa went against Anash, ready for anything. Leaving the two most reluctant to fight paired. Besides the three of them, Sumowa prayed for plants in the area she could use in this fight. Luckily, several vines did sprout from the ground, creating a shield just as Acio's arrows got too close. Laya readied a fireball in her hand her opponent watched her lazily, his body relaxed. Laya fired her weapon, obviously catching Anash off guard with just how powerful it was. 'Emparo' came from its place, and slashed against Laya. A small seam of blood trickled down Laya's traditional clothing. Even with that small sight, Anash's eyes went from their normal blood red to a darker maroon. Just that small trickle had already set adrenaline pumping through his body like the blood in his veins. He wanted more. Cloud and Cosmo stared at one another, stared as if they both were having a hard time finding the right words to apologize for their teammates actions against the other's. Cosmo, who had a clear view of Laya and Anash's fight, saw Anash's attack would demand more blood.

"Laya!" Cosmo gasped, pushing back Cloud and hitting Anash from the side. Cloud looked back, getting to a sitting position. She recognized her friends look, he was out for any blood that got in his way, and Cosmo just became a target. 'Emparo' was held high in the air when Cloud grabbed the coal black echidna and spun him around, their noses almost touching.

"Save it for when you'll need it." She growled at the echidna, releasing him with a slight shove. Neither was ready for Laya's fireball that blasted them off the edge and through a warp ring. Now it was Acio against the three seedrians. She had, of course, accounted for this, and had started formulating a back up plan in her mind. Obviously the green one did not want to fight, that was fine, one less opponent. But the other two, Laya and Sumowa, seemed a bit more ready to fight her. Apart the two were powerful with their abilities, but together, they could really do damage. Acio had accounted for this, and decided the best course of action. The black cat attacked with 'Spirit Enchantment' and successfully immobilized Sumowa, taking her out to the game. The rainbow seedrian lay silently on the ground, unblinking and unmoving.

"Sumowa..." Laya whispered with a sharp in-take of breath. Cosmo instinctively went to help her sister, but the black cat that was her opponent moved quickly and took Cosmo off the edge, leaving the battle one-on-one. Laya now stood ready with fire balls charged in each hand, waiting for the time to strike. Acio's bow and arrows appeared in her hands one again, with one carefully aimed arrow, her plan would work. Acio launched the arrow, while Laya shot her fire at the same time. Perfect. As the two collided, that arrow didn't stop and fall, as expected by Laya; instead, its tip caught fire and continued forward. The young seedrian quickly side stepped but suddenly fell as the cat attacked. Both now dangerously close to the edge, Acio gave one final shove and sent Laya off the edge. The seedrian shot out a hand and luckily grabbed one of Acio's long braids.

"Hey!" the black cat yelled, going down with Laya. The warp ring appeared once again to take the next two fighters. Now the only remaining person stood up, the immobilization gone.

**Is it bad that I had too much fun writing this chapter? I think I went out of order for the Chaos Emerald mission...I can't remember...So, the winners of this round are Team Gracious and Team Earthia. (Don't worry, there's gonna be another chance)**


	10. Neonopolis: Act I

**I've finally broken free of Writer's Block! And I'm finally done with the chapter!**

Chapter 10: Neonopolis: Act I

Raket landed nimbly on his feet, Light and Sonia following only seconds after. The sun had long-since set over this new area. Though the three heroes would have preferred to run along it in the day time. This new area was nothing but bright, flashing lights, and the darkness only made it brighter. Sonia squeezed the bridge of her nose with her eyes closed, but the bright flashes of pink, blue, red, and other colors could still be seen through her eyelids. Though it hurt his retinas, Raket looked around this new zone; The ground they would be traveling on was a slow revolution of the bright neon colors in rainbow order, the buildings, mostly skyscrapers and other buildings found in cities, flashed at a faster pace, keeping in-beat with fast paced music that seemed to blare from the buildings themselves. The silver hedgehog covered his eyes with a hand, spots appearing in front of his them.

"The faster we get outta here, the better." Light said, looking up at the sky to clear his vision.

"Agreed." The two hedgehogs answered with a nod. Without another word, the three jetted down the brightly colored path, carefully avoiding eye contact with the ground or buildings around them. They had not gone far before a herd of Egg-bots discovered them and attacked the three heroes. These robots must have been designed for this zone; they were all brightly colored and lit up like Christmas trees. As one group fell, another came, now armed and ready. Light, Raket and Sonia went forward, they could keep going and fight at once. As the next wave was fought off, they three found the breaking point of each bot. The biggest ones, which were a florescent yellow, were the weakest, but had strong attacks they were taken out with a single hit. The bright blues ones, about the height of Raket, were fast, but were down with two hits. And the smallest, a painfully pink robot that seemed to hover over the ground, proved to be the toughest, it took about four hits to destroy. But its attacks were weak and uncoordinated. A fourth wave was now scrap metal as Team Raket came to a complexly locked steel door. The only thing in the city that wasn't brightly lit.

"I wish manic was here..." murmured Sonia, "He knows ho to pick a lock..."

"Maybe we don't need to take off the lock." Light suggested. His hedgehog friends looked at him in a questioning manner. "Up there..." Light pointed to a small square of light. "If Raket can lift me and Sonia up, we can pull him up and get through." He explained. Raket examined it cautiously; the white light they intended to get to was about twenty feet above them in the wall.

"That...just might work..." Raket admitted, carefully looking around. "We may need something for me to climb up, but I think we can do this."

"Easy." Sonia smiled, pulling a cord from a near-by building, shutting its bright light show down. "We'll use this."

"I'll go first, to see if everything's alright." Light volunteered. Raket, seeing no point to argue, nodded and carefully lifted his friend with his telekinesis. The light blue color neatly outlined Light's figure and lifted him to his destination. The electric yellow fox grabbed the edge and hulled himself inside the small space. The light had disappeared as soon as the fox had gotten near it. It looked like a small tunnel, but it only would take a few feet of crawling to get them to the other side. "All clear!" he called over his shoulder, stepping onto the ground on the other side to wait for his friends. The cord Sonia had gotten was carefully tied around the silver hedgehog's waist. He looked at Sonia.

"You ready?" he asked, carefully levitating her off the ground. The female hedgehog nodded in response. Sonia reached the top and pulled Raket up to join her, the two were in and out of the tunnel in a minute, rejoining Light on the other side.

**OoOoO**

Team Guardian looked around the same surroundings as Team Raket.

"Now where are we?" Acio asked, looking around then quickly covering her eyes. Anash avoided the brightly colored atmosphere altogether and only looked ahead and into the sky. Cloud was already seeing spots from the fast-changing colors the surrounded her and the other two Guardians.

"I dunno, but I'd say it's better we get out." Cloud said, rubbing her eyes. She quickly took the lead, her comrades following just as fast. The music surrounding them pounded in their heads and vibrated the air with each note played, resulting headaches for the three members. An ambush of brightly colored, gun-wielding yellow robots jumped the three mammals as soon they exited a loop, they proved to be too easy as Cloud, out of reflex, shot her fist out and hit the closest one spot on. The robot exploded into a bright bust and left only scraps of yellow metal behind.

"If they're all like that, this'll be too easy." Anash sneered, kicking a fragment of the yellow metal. Anash to the half of the ambush coming at him and Cloud, Acio destroying the other half, 'Emparo' was brought out once more and sliced easily through the Egg-bots' hauls like a hot knife through butter. The few that had managed to dodge or survive the sword's damaging move were handled by Cloud with the help of her speed. Acio had her usual weapon of choice: her bow and arrows. Arrows flew rapidly into the herd of robots coming at the black cat, as soon as the arrow was in place it flew swiftly through the music-filled air and nailed its target dead center. As the battle finished, the three looked just in time to see a building suddenly cut its power and blacken. The three looked to one another questioningly, should they investigate? Maybe the building had some sort of significance to them...but why did it go out? Acio didn't give her team any more time to think of it, she started in a quick jog forward, letting her team catch up before going off at full speed. The dark building towered over them as they approached to front door. A sign was sitting above the door, the power was out, but they could still see what was on it. The bright tubes of grey neon color seemed to make the shape of a robot, like one a child would draw, consisting mostly of squares.

"Think we should go check it out?" Anash asked, looking at the door, it was open a jar, and the three would easily slip through.

"We came all this way, why not?" Cloud shrugged, though she was curious why this building had suddenly died away. The cobalt hedgehog followed her black teammates into the building; it looked like a warehouse on the inside...or a storage building. Wooden crates surrounded them, piling almost to the ceiling. Anash went over to one box, standing alone and ripped the nailed down lid off. "Anash!" Cloud growled at the black echidna. He ignored her and dug through the carefully packed box.

"Look at this." He said, pulling a robot limb out to the crate. "This must be where Eggman stores his robotic parts."

"We should destroy it, then." Acio commented, pointing an arrow at the piece.

"Wait a second." Cloud said, staring at the limb. "Something isn't right..." The female took the red robotic limb from Anash and examined it. "I was right..." she muttered.

"About what?" Anash asked, being the only one close enough to hear. Cloud looked up, at Anash, and then to Acio, who lowered her bow. "These aren't made by Eggman...They're made by Tails..."

**OoOoO**

"You okay? I mean, after the 'being frozen' thing." Laya asked, concerned about her older sister.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sumowa answered. Cosmo was already looking around their new location and the same reaction as others had when first arriving. The green seedrian covered her eyes.

"It's so bright..." she complained.

"And loud." Sumowa added. "Who'd wanna live here?"

"Not a clue, let's go." Laya answered, taking charge of the group. The oldest of the seedrians quickly took the front after catching her littlest sister.

"I guess we have no choice." She shrugged, pulling Cosmo along with her. The three girls followed a path that slowly revolved all colors of the rainbow, only magnifying the brightness of them. It was much narrower than what they had started on, but it took them through a detour of the city. A far away building suddenly dulled and blended with the night sky as they came to a dead end. The three entered an area that seemed to be a dead end, but was brightly lit with white light. Cosmo quickly turned off the blinding light, and the three could see a small square tunnel that was easily reachable, about at eye level with the Sumowa.

"All clear!" a voice from inside yelled, startling the three of Team Earthia.

"There's someone in there." Laya whispered, holding tightly to Sumowa's arm.

"Come on, we should go..." the rainbow seedrian replied, pushing her sisters away from the voice.

"But where?" Cosmo asked, "It's a dead end."

"There's gotta be somewhere we can go...There!" Sumowa pointed to a small, wooden door, painted bright neon green with a knocker blended almost perfectly into it. Cosmo knelt down to better examine the door. There was a knocker, but no knob.

"How do we open it?" she asked, searching it once again. There was a moment of silence before they heard shuffling from the tunnel and Laya grabbed the knocker. The orange seedrian twisted the knocker and pulled, the door flung silently open. All three barely made it inside and closed the door before whatever was in the tunnel, a yellow fox, poked his head through. From there, the three crawled on their knees several meters before emerging outside. Laya, who had crawled in first, looked around carefully before getting out and gesturing for her sisters to do that same.

"Come on, we're in a building of some sort..." Laya trailed off before she could make her guess. Cosmo and Sumowa crawled out and looked for what had silenced their sister. They didn't have to look far. The room they stood in looked like a production line. A production line for robots. Cosmo went forward to examine one that had been tossed aside, no doubt because of an error in its making.

"Whose are they?" she asked, examining the robot over, it all fit together well, but the styles for the pieces seemed...different. One arm was sleek and curved, another was dull and sharp. The head was blue, and the body a very noticeable dark blue, nothing on the robot matched. Sumowa and Laya joined her in looking over the robots, they were all different, some had eyes, and some had none. Up on the conveyer belt, then robots seemed to be becoming more and more like a single person made it. Laya picked up one and almost immediately dropped it.

"Sumowa, Cosmo...Look..." the orange seedrian showed her sister's her discovery, the symbol on the robot was part of Eggman's face, and one familiar orange tail with a white tip.

**OoOoO**

The three female detectives quickly surveyed their surroundings, bright lights, pounding music...no amount of aspirin was gonna help them now.

"We've already been running for a day." Waffle commented. Silence hung in the air around the three. "Do ya think they're...?"

"Dead?" Kaity finished, getting glares from her teammates. "What? Everyone's thinkin' it, I'm just sayin' it." She said, jumping to her own defense.

"Even so," Snow started, turning her attention to Waffle, "there wasn't a ransom note or anything, so they have a larger chance of being alive." The white tiger assured her friend. Waffle smiled at her tiger friend, at least there was a chance...

"Come on guys, I think I'm seeing spots..." Kaity said, wobbling slightly as they went on their way. The music pounded on their ear drums with every step, though Waffle and Snow seemed to have more effect from it. They raced down a street, keeping in-step and steady. Waffle suddenly thrust her arm out in front of her friends, causing them to crash into the arm.

"Look." The tan fox said, pointing to a sign with a neon grey robot on it, and a neon purple outline around the sign itself.

"What? A robot factory?" Kaity asked, as if it were nothing special.

"Yes."

"What's so weird about it?"

"In a skyscraper?" Waffle chuckled.

"...I see you're point. We goin' in?"

"Of course." The door looked to have an old lock on it, easily broken. "Come on." Waffle opened to door just enough for the three to slip in unnoticed. Inside the three looked around the brightly lit room, a storage room, maybe. Each box was carefully stacked, keeping the floor clear.

"Watch out below!" Snow called from the top of a stack, shoving a crate over the side. The chameleon and vixen quickly jumped away as the wooden cube landed, but didn't break. "What's inside?" the white tiger called down, jumping from box to box until she reached the ground.

"I can't open it." Waffle sighed, giving the lid a final tug.

"Maybe there's more here..." Kaity pondered, looking around. The lights suddenly switched off, leaving the room in the dulled light of neon colors outside the dusty window. "Well, that was unexpected."

"Now what? We can't get any of the boxes open." Snow asked. Both teammates were about to answer before the sound of footsteps alerted them of someone outside.

"We find a way out." Waffle said, changing her original answer. The tan female pulled her friends quickly up the pile of boxes to hide. As the peered over the edge, a cobalt hedgehog, black cat, and black Echidna slipped in and began examining the same box they had. She gestured for her friends to follow her, and started carefully down the other side of the crate tower and through another door, leading them to what they thought was a production line for something. They went farther in, examining what was going through the lines and being put together. They were shaped like Eggman's Egg-bots, but their design didn't quite fit Eggman's. Waffle suddenly gasped, startling her friends. "Look at the arms..." she said, gesturing to the right arm of each passing robot. They all carried Tails' symbol.

"Tails made these...?" Snow gasped, breaking the silence that had taken over.

**I'm so happy to be out of Writer's Block! And just in time for Summer! Enjoy people.**


	11. Neonopolis: Act II

**Lil' somethin' ta keep you all busy for a while, TWO UPDATES! IN ONE DAY!...That, and I don't have the next chapter written yet...**

Chapter 11: Neonopolis: Act II

The two hedgehogs and fox looked carefully around the new room they had come to. The same room Team Earthia had been in before Light had arrived.

"It looks like a dead end." Sonia observed, scanning the room once again for a possible exit.

"There has ta be another way out." Raket said, determined. The silver hedgehog once again looked around the room, no windows, and one door. "There's a door." Raket pointed out, pointing a finger at the door three seedrians had used to enter.

"But it's locked from the outside." Light countered, pulling on the door as hard as he could.

"Well, there's gotta be some other way out...why make a dead end room with a locked door?"

"Maybe it wasn't supposed to be like this first." Sonia put in. Light and Raket looked at the female questioningly, so she continued "Maybe this room wasn't a dead end to begin with...maybe..."

"Maybe what?" Light urged.

"Maybe it's a hiding place."

"A hiding place?" Raket questioned, staring at the orchid hedgehog oddly.

"Or maybe an escape route." She shrugged, "Since we were able to get in here through that tunnel, and that door is locked on the outside, maybe it was originally used to get away from someone."

"But then they'd be locked in here, and whoever was chasing them could climb in too." Light pointed out.

"Then there's gotta be another way out..." Raket murmured. His eyes suddenly fell on the small green door. "Maybe..." He said softly, starting toward the door. "Maybe a secret passage." The hedgehog examined the little door and found the knocker. Light and Sonia joined him and searched carefully for a knob.

"There isn't a door knob, but it has to lead somewhere." Light said, slamming the knocker down against the door multiple times. "Maybe there's a code we have to use."

"Let me try." Sonia said, reaching for the knocker. As she grabbed it, Light tried again to slam it into the wooden door, and twisted to it, opening the passage once again. Team Raket crawled through and found themselves in the same place Team Earthia had been. Only now, the room was cleared of production line robots. Seeing that the room had no significance to their quest, they left through a door that was hidden by scraps of forgotten metal. Out on the street, things hadn't changed, music pounded at the same pace, lights flashed. A machine similar to Eggman's Egg Mobile flew by quickly carrying none other than Dr. Eggman.

"Eggman!" the three cried out in unison, instantly giving chase to the round man and his vehicle. The man behind the wheel gave no notice to the voices, but speed up considerably. Team Raket kept track of him easily, running through the complex and horribly bright city until Eggman came to a stop on a bright colored, ever changing platform, the hedgehogs and fox jumped off a ramp to reach their foe.

**OoOoO**

"Tails couldn't have made these." Acio stated, swiping the arm from her hedgehog teammate and carefully examining it. "We were just fighting them; Tails' robots usually _help_ us."

"I know that, but it looks like his handiwork." Cloud replied.

"Maybe someone stole his designs and made their own out of it." Anash offered.

"And by 'someone' you mean 'Eggman'?"

"Who else?" Anash shrugged. Before Cloud had could speak, a small _click_ echoed around them. A closing door? Acio's cat ears picked up the sound quickly and followed it to the source with Cloud and Anash, curious, followed. The black cat climbed swiftly over the boxes and to the same door three detectives had slipped through. Without a word, Cloud opened the door slowly and peeked through the crack that was just large enough for her head. The hedgehog's head re-appeared with her team and she turned to face them.

"There's a whole army of those robots marching out." She informed them, keeping her voice low incase a passing robot should hear.

"Where do ya think they're goin'?" Anash asked more to himself then to Cloud and Acio.

"We should follow 'em. See where they're going." Acio suggested. Cloud and Anash agreed and opened to door fully so they could all quickly get through. But found the room now empty.

"How could they disappear that fast? There was at least twelve dozen..." Cloud pondered, slightly confused.

"Regardless, this looks like a way out, and we can try to find them." Anash pointed out, gesturing to the open door wide enough to fit about five Egg-bots through and still have space and stood at least ten feet over their heads. The two females nodded, agreeing with the echidna and rushed out the door, hoping to catch up to the army before it did too much damage to the city. As they turned onto a main road, Cloud caught a glimpse of the orange seedrian they had fought before disappear around a corner but kept going with her team, searching for the robots she had before seen. After a sharp right turn and multiple ramps and small groups of enemies, the gang caught up with their target, though now there were more then the cobalt hedgehog remembered, they had doubled in numbers, at the least.

"Why would Eggman need all these robots? Strange-looking ones at that." Acio wondered.

"How do ya know it's Eggman?" Cloud asked, once again, Eggman was pinned as the owner of the faulty designed robots.

"Because of that." Acio pointed into the air, taking up a sizable amount of space was Eggman's much loved Egg Mobile. Yet it seemed to match with its atmosphere, bright colored and flashing quickly.

"Oh..." Cloud answered lamely. "We should follow 'im and find out." She said. The others nodded, following stealthily after Eggman as he flew away from the sea of brightly colored robots. The doctor did a double take as he realized he was being followed, quickly making his machine go faster. Somewhere during the chase, Eggman had maneuvered into a place Team Guardian couldn't reach.

"Use this." Anash suggested, carrying over a cage with a key inside. They didn't question it since it was their way of getting to Eggman. It did, however, break under the weight of the three as they climbed on and grabbed the edge. Acio used her tail to grab the key, preventing it from alerting Eggman of their arrival. The three jumped onto a platform Eggman had stopped on, grinning madly at them.

**OoOoO**

The three seedrians shook their heads, refusing to believe what they had discovered. Cosmo most of all.

"Why would Tails make these?" Sumowa asked, using it as a defense against her own doubts. "And besides, Eggman's logo is on there too."

"Yeah, but why?" Laya wondered, picking up the piece again to examine.

"Tails would never work with Dr. Eggman!" Cosmo cried, jumping to her fox friend's defense. "You know that!"

"No one said he was working with Eggman, Cosmo." Sumowa answered soothingly. "But we gotta find out why these robots are like this." To their right, the conveyer belt carrying the robots stopped abruptly. None of the Seedrians took notice as the deformed machines rose from their laying position and trooped off into a marching formation. The sound of metal feet got their attention, standing stunned as a squad of several dozen robots marched out the door and onto the street.

"What in Chaos..." Cosmo started, watching them in confusion.

"Come on, we gotta follow 'em!" Laya instructed, going out after the army without waiting for her sisters. The other two followed, seeing no other option. Sumowa passed by Laya, then Cosmo, putting the three in a line by age. The number of robots seemed to double as they marched farther into the city and turned down another street. Only Sumowa caught the movement of three figures moving quickly and quietly in the shadows of the neon buildings. She chose not to tell her sisters, if the shadows were not a threat to them, no need to get her sisters up tight about it. The three figures moved quickly around a turn and into an ally way and disappeared.

"Eggman!" Cosmo gasped, pointing to the Egg Mobile going past the doubled army in front of them. "See? These are his robots." Cosmo slipped passed the metal troops and followed after Eggman's favorite machine. Two more seedrians joining her in the chase. Their foe kept a steady pace, slow enough for the three to keep up with him, but fast enough so he was just out of reach. The round man made a sudden sharp turn onto another street, the sound of robots' steady metal march slowly dieing away. The bright glowing Egg Mobile came to a stop as it approached a wall as it turned down an ally.

"No where to run, Eggman." Laya called to the doctor, "Just give up." A deep chuckle answered her demand. Eggman slowly turned with his machine, revealing missiles poised and ready to fire on the three girls.

**OoOoO**

The only reptile in the group looked over each passing robot; all of them had their fox friends' symbol.

"They aren't his designs..." she said finally, shaking her head. "Wait..." she started quietly, more to her herself then for her friends to hear and ponder, "What if Tails was kidnapped too?" Her mammal friends looked up, confusion clear on their faces, but knew they would get answers if they stayed silent. "That would explain why Tails wasn't in his work shop..." the chameleon continued, unaware of her listening friends.

"If he wasn't in his workshop, then what was it you found out back there?" Waffle interjected. Kaity looked up from her thoughts, either her friend was a mind reader, or she was talking louder then she thought.

"That's not important. What's important is that Tails may be in as much danger as the Chaotix." The chameleon answered seriously. Snow tuned out the rest of the discussion between her two friends, and looked around, robots were still being made. The white tiger backed up a few steps, trying to get a better angle on the rooms' size, but tripped, falling backward and automatically reaching out for something to grab, which happened to be a lever sticking out of the wall. The lever went down with Snow as she hit the ground. The machines around them slowly came to a stop, which all three took instant notice of. Deformed robots went into a sitting position in a simultaneous action. Waffle and Kaity both shot a glare at their friend.

"I tripped!" Snow cried out defensively. The surrounding robots slipped down from their place and began to form a sea of brightly colored metals. Snow, Waffle, and Kaity quickly raced out an opening door, about the size of five lined up Egg-bots and about ten feet taller then them. Waffle took a fast lead, leading her friends through the complex twists and turns of the streets until they came to another army of robots, about twelve dozen of them, give or take. The vixen had been aware of the sound of metallic footsteps marching behind them as they went, no doubt coming to join with the party in front of them.

"Eggman!" familiar voices shouted. All three detectives looked around for the source of the sound and their enemy. Eggman passed by on the street connected to the one they currently stood on, after that, Team Raket zoomed after him. Team Gracious instantly leapt into the shadows, the last thing they needed was a fight in the middle of a herd of armed robots. Quietly they stood, waiting for the army to acknowledge their creator being chased and follow, but they simply went into an army formation and marched across the street and on. The girls quickly vanished into the shadows of an ally and climbed over a bright flashing wall and onto the next street. Eggman's favorite machine sat in front of the ally's entrance. He must be hiding from those three Mobians. A perfect time to question the good doctor. Snow approached quickly, but at two feet distance, the machine suddenly rose and shot off, leaving the members of Team Gracious stunned before taking off after him seconds later.

"Hold it, Eggman!" Waffle demanded, pushing herself to move faster. Eggman only turned and sneered at the three's attempts to catch him and went faster, but he never went out of sight. A quick turn every now and then, but nothing too hard to keep up with for experienced detectives such as themselves. "Stop!" Waffle called again, this time warning clearly shown in her tone.

"He's not gonna stop." Kaity answered, pointing out the obvious. They weren't sure how many streets they had run up, down, past and through, but the fat mad man finally came to an abrupt stop, forcing his pursuers to slow down as well.

"Just...just give up...Eggman." Snow panted, all three were desperately trying to regain their breath. The doctor only sneered as the surrounding area seemed to break away, leaving them standing on a bright, flashing platform.

**Why do all these chapters look so much longer in the document?**


	12. Egg Overkill

**Due to internet promblems, I may not be able to post as often, but I WILL finish this! I'm really into it now, I have no clue why, but I'm able to get at least half a chapter done a day. Anyway, enjoy people.**

Chapter 12: Egg Overkill

Eggman's Egg Mobile turned to face Light, Raket and Sonia.

"You three _again_!?" Eggman growled, staring down at his opponents. Sonia shrugged, a grin clear on her face.

"You're not getting away this time, Eggman." Light growled in response.

"What makes you think you'll be fighting me, Fox boy?" the doctor sneered, "Get them!" in a flash of bright light, half a dozen of the deformed robots appeared, circling the three heroes. Eggman's machine lifted him higher into the air to watch the battle and sneer at Team Raket's attempts to destroy the army they knew was coming. The three stood back-to-back-to-back, all taking a fighting position.

"Take down as many as you can as fast as you can." Sonia instructed. Raket and Light nodded in response. The robots advanced on them, tightening the circle.

"Now!" Raket shouted, bounding toward the two facing him and destroying them using his telekinesis. Sonia whipped out her keyboard rifle and blasted her targets easily, blowing smoke from its barrel. Light sprang at the remaining two and crushed them with ease. Six down, Chaos knows how many to go...Eggman didn't seem the least bit pleased with Team Raket's small victory. He pressed a small button from within his Egg Mobile and another bright flash blinded the hedgehogs and fox; when they opened their eyes, all three gasped, the number to enemies had tripled their last round of foes.

"Charge!" Eggman commanded, stabbing a finger at the three in the middle of the small cluster of robots. The robots did as they were commanded, raising weapons or fists to fight, same with the opposing three. Bullets, scrap metal, and fists flew through the air, missing and hitting targets or allies; a free for all. One robot exploded into scraps, courtesy of Raket's unique ability, and the fighting Mobians felt a sudden jolt of energy. Looking at one another quickly, they knew exactly what to do. Raket took hold of what was left of the enemies with telekinesis, and Light and Sonia preformed a sort of spin dash on each enemy, blowing them to nothing more then scraps of metal. It was odd though, they had never preformed such an attack before, but they knew how to do it expertly.

"Just give up, Eggman." Raket demanded, hoping maybe their last attack had a bit of influence on the round man's choice.

"Hmph, this is only the beginning!" Eggman cried, slamming the same button with a fist. Yet another light flashed, this time staying much longer then the others. As the light disappeared and Team Raket's sight returned, they saw that the evil mad man had fled, leaving behind a small herd of robots and three giant ones to finish them.

"Let's try that attack again." Light suggested, hoping to soon feel the same jolt of power again.

"I don't think we can." Raket replied, shaking his head. "Looks like we're gonna need to fight 'em on our own again." The silver hedgehog scanned quickly, much more enemies this time, in fact, they could barely move without having an enemy in their face. The big ones stood almost seven feet tall and colored brightly, like everything else in the zone, wielding hammers only one with a great amount of strength could manage to hold.

"Great..." Light remarked sarcastically, looking over the new enemies. "These guys look pretty tough."

"Yeah, but we're tougher." Sonia answered, running at the crowd and firing off her laser rifle, taking out more then a third of the smaller robots. One of the bigger bots lifted its hammer into the air and brought it down on the eggplant colored hedgehog.

"Sonia!" Raket cried out. The hedgehog manipulated the hammer just before the target was struck, ripping it from the owners hands and striking with enough force to take the giant robot, and several passing small ones, off the edge. Raket was at Sonia's side, she had stood frozen at the sight of the over hanging hammer, "Are you okay?" he asked shyly.

"Yes...thank you." Sonia smiled, planting a small kiss on her savior's cheek. "Come on, we got more 'bots to destroy." Raket smiled and nodded, following her back into the fight. Light was now pitted against a hammer-wielding robot and what was left of the small, disfigured minions. As expected, the small robots fell with a few punches or kicks. The big one, now joined by the other, seemed a bit tougher. One hammer came down, narrowly missing the yellow fox. Light jumped away from the shadow of the second hammer and onto the first hammer, now being lifted once again. With quick reflex, Light was on the robots' shoulder, and delivered a blow to the head, shutting it down and causing it to stumble off the edge as Light pushed off and repeated the process with the other.

"He got away." Light growled as his teammates returned. "Eggman ran off again!"

**OoOoO**

Team Guardian held their ground against the slowly advancing robots that had been summoned by Eggman. As the robots got closer, the three guardians suddenly disappeared.

_Begin Special Mission: Emerald Challenge_

Anash, Acio and Cloud reappeared in the same glass tube as the others before them had. But the surrounding outside blinked quickly with neon color. No one spoke before a light blue Chaos Emerald flew over the three's heads and on.

"An Emerald!" Acio cried,

"Get it!" Anash shouted, dashing off after it. The two girls followed, and Cloud eventually took the lead, running into blue spheres dotted all over with small, yellow stars. The cobalt hedgehog ran along the wall, just dodging the long rows of bombs that waited for them. The light blue emerald continued forward, showing no signs of slowing down or stopping. It turned a corner, followed by Acio only ten seconds after. Anash and Cloud caught up to the black cat, collecting the spheres on either side of the track and propelling them closer to their target gem. "Almost...got it..." Acio said, stretching her arm out as far as it would go and pumping her legs harder, yet the gem was hovering just out of her reach during the chase. A gentle curve in the path lessened the space between the gem and its pursuer. Anash ran into a group of rainbow spheres and dashed forward, reaching the emerald. The black echidna slowed to a stop and grinned down at the emerald in his hands.

"Got it." He grinned, displaying it for his teammates to see. In a flash, the three disappeared from the special zone.

_End Special Mission: Emerald Challenge_

The robots were in the same position as before when Team Guardian arrived.

"Attack!" Eggman ordered, his voice filled with authority. The dozen robots that had been idly standing there now took an attack position and charged at the team of three. The Guardian of Spirit brought out her bow and arrows once again, and open fired on any brightly colored, moving object; destroying half the pack. Cloud and Anash teamed up against the remaining half with claws and neon rings. With quick movements, their half was destroyed, leaving only scraps of metal behind. Anash looked up to Eggman who hovered high off the ground.

"Time to give up, Eggman." He growled, letting neon light glint off the claws on his wrists. Eggman scowled at them, and quickly pressed a series of buttons, causing a flash of light and more robots.

"I'm just warming up." The doctor cackled, seeing the three's tensed reaction to the enemies. This time Cloud estimated about four dozen on the platform with them. Acio and Anash already were taking on a handful of robots and successfully taking them down. Two dozen left. Cloud used neon rings once again on a crowd of deformed robots coming at her. A successful fight for Cloud. None were left now; Anash had taken care of the stray dozen while the female hedgehog took on the others.

"We win again." Acio said, glancing triumphantly as Eggman, who now looked worried and angry at the same time.

"This isn't the end!" He growled, slamming down on a big, red button inside the cockpit of his Egg Mobile and sending out a brilliant flash and five larger robots when the light had subdued.

"He's getting away!" Acio said, pointing to Eggman's machine flying away quickly.

"We gotta take these things out first." Cloud answered, readying several more neon rings for the fight about to start. Anash, ready for battle as always, went at the towering 'bots first, a hammer missed the swift echidna by an inch and went off the edge with the robot whom had been holding it as Anash attacked. The remaining four closed in around the mammals. Cloud jumped forward, throwing herself into one robot that already had a foot up to kick them, knocking it off balance and into another like a domino. Acio took two arrows and shot the heads before they could stand once again. Three against two now, the odds were with them. Anash was already going at once with 'Emparo' drawn and poised to kill, or dismantle, at least. One of the robots was sliced neatly in two, revealing the inside of the robot. The last one, watching the destruction of its allies, took a step away from the three skilled Mobians and unintentionally off the edge.

"Heh...what a way to go..."Anash laughed, watching the robot drop like a rock.

**OoOoO**

Sumowa instantly stood in front of her two sisters, keeping her eyes on the missiles. The evil doctor grinned hideously and fired. All three seedrians jumped away from where they had stood, expecting the missiles to come at them, but instead, they went at the space around them, destroying the surroundings and leaving them on a platform.

"Prepare to meet your doom!" Eggman laughed, hitting a button in his Egg Mobile, bringing enemies to the battlefield after an intensely bright flash of light. What had been empty space was now taken up with several dozen of the deformed robots the seedrians had before discovered.

"It'll take more then a few robots to stop us." Laya said confidently.

Eggman sneered, "We'll see about that." The Egg Mobile rose high into the air, the doctor now out of their reach. "Get them!" The robots were more than willing to oblige Eggman's command, Laya charged at a handful coming at her, fire ready in either hand. She took a quick step back as one swung a metal jousting stick at her then shot the flames at her attackers. The disfigured Egg-bots fell backward, the intense heat frying their circuits and shutting them off for good. Sumowa followed her sister's example and summoned vines which luckily were within the area. The rainbow seedrian directed them as the group of Egg-bots that were attempting to sneak up on Cosmo. They were all destroyed silently, never diverting Cosmo from her fight with the final robots. Cosmo had no special power like her sisters, but she was well enough in a fight to hold her own against these robot rejects. The seedrian jumped as one pointed a gun at her, landing cat-like on the firearm; she kicked the head clean off and into the middle of the mini-herd. Several of the robots hesitated to fight after witnessing that, but a few brave ones charged at her, ready for anything she could do. Cosmo spin-kicked the small group coming at her, a skill she had learned from Tails. The others now nothing but scraps for standing in place, making them ideal targets for Sumowa and Laya. Another volley of enemies appeared after a bright flash; this time at least six dozen appeared, followed by a single giant robot.

"Take care of the small ones first, and then we'll get to the big one." Sumowa instructed.

"Duh." Laya answered with a shrug and sprung at a third of the robots. Sumowa and Cosmo followed, taking a side of the battle field, but avoiding the larger enemy. Fire, plant life and other weapons soared this way and that, hitting and missing targets. The final robot was reduced to scrap, leaving only the over-sized one left. The orange seedrian ran around it, keeping close enough to capture its attention, but far enough that it couldn't use its weapon. Cosmo ran in an opposite direction of Laya, forcing the robot to attempt to see both at once while Sumowa summoned the largest, strongest vine she could and shot it cleanly through the metal haul. As the robot fell, a sudden jolt went through Team Earthia's members. The three didn't have time to think anything of it before Eggman howled in anger and brought out his final attack of robots, all giant, about seven or eight. The giant 'bots had Laya, Sumowa and Cosmo surrounded. No way out. Going on a hunch, Laya climbed onto Sumowa's shoulders, followed by Cosmo on Laya's. With a little difficulty, the three balanced themselves, matching the size of one of their enemies. Sumowa again summoned two of the most powerful and largest vines she could, Laya set them aflame. Cosmo grabbed either and jumped from her sisters' shoulders and threw them quickly at the enemy, destroying them with a single hit. Looking around after the stunning attack, they found that Eggman had run away during the fight.

**OoOoO**

"You look tired, girls. Why not give up now? Save yourselves the humiliation." Eggman snickered at the three still gasping for breath.

"Don't flatter yourself, Eggman." Waffle laughed, "We're more then capable of fighting anything _you_ have." Snow and Kaity nodded in agreement, now breathing normally like their tan vixen friend. Without another word, Eggman pressed a button and brought enemies to the three with a bright flash of light. Their enemies were several dozens of small robots, all armed with firearms.

"This'll be fun." Kaity grinned, turning invisible and running at a group in front of her. The chameleon leapt into the air, performing the leaf swirl Espio had taught her. Three were caught in the whirlwind and flew skyward, only to come crashing down on other robots. Waffle came into the battle after the robots had fallen from the sky, aware her friend was still invisible, Waffle went after a group advancing the spot where the small whirlwind had appeared. The vixen tackled one, knocking the others down with it like a row of disfigured dominos. A single punch went through the first robots haul, destroying it. The fox went at the others with a similar technique, carefully avoiding robots that went too close to the invisible chameleon. Snow joined the battle as well, swinging 'Dragon Fang' left and right, no robots were left standing after Team Gracious' assault.

"Time for round two!" Snow said, adrenaline pumping through her body after the first fight. Eggman glared down at the ready three from his place in the air. Another flash signaled the arrival of their next round of opponents. With the exception of several over-sized robots, the battle seemed to repeat itself; a few dozen small deformed Egg-bots came at them once again. Each girl went with a different tactic. Waffle charged through the small army that watched her carefully, throwing out punches and kicks that landed neatly on the enemy, lessening their numbers. Snow sheathed 'Dragon fang' and went at her own group of Egg-bots with quick skills and different styles of fighting to throw off any of the robots who think of copying her. Kaity sprang at the robots closest to her, showering them in kunai and ninja stars. That left the two giant robots to deal with.

"No problem." Waffle grinned, charging them with her chameleon friend at her side. One raised its hammer to crush the one coming two, but missed as they separated at the robots feet, causing enough distraction for Snow to come with 'Dragon Fang' and slice it into two neat pieces. The white tiger went swiftly at the next one, moving quickly to avoid the hammer and giving her chameleon and fox friends time to attack the same robot, their combined force flung the robot over the edge.

"Ready to give up?" Waffle asked, grinning amusingly at the furious doctor.

"I've only begun to fight." Eggman countered, summoning more robots, this time four giant 'bots. The Egg Mobile quickly went higher and flew away from the battle.

"He's getting away!" Snow growled, running forward. Waffle quickly pulled her back as a hammer swung down at her.

"Don't worry; we'll get 'em." Waffle promised, staring coldly at the disappearing circle that was Eggman and his ever-trusty machine.

"Yeah, but right now, we've got other problems." Kaity added, gesturing with a thumb at the surrounding robots. They split up and took down three robots in record time, leaving one left. The detectives advanced on it, as the hammer rose into the air. Waffle took it as a cue and leapt at the robot knocking the hammer from its deformed hands and off the side. Kaity and Snow charged at it, taking it down easily. Snow stabbed her sword through the haul, shutting down the robot for good.

**Yay! Another boss fight! Yeah, the title is a bit...stupid...but it was the best I could think of. Sorry...**


	13. Emerald Mines: Act I

**With luck, I can update two chapters at a time, depending on how much I can get done and how much I can get to the library to post...**

Chapter 13: Emerald Mines: Act I

A warp ring had appeared after Team Raket's victory over Eggman and took them to a dully lit place. The only light coming from oil lamps of either side of the tunnel, with wooden support beams surrounding the walls and ceiling. They guessed a mine.

"Do you think Eggman came here?" Sonia asked, looking around. The walls sparkled with gems of all colors and sizes just visible under a layer of dirt.

"I don't think he'd fit." Light laughed. Raket and Sonia smiled at the joke.

"Let's take a look around, just to be sure." Raket said, answering Sonia's question before and walking deeper into the mine. Light and Sonia followed after the silver hedgehog, keeping close to one another. They weren't sure how long they had been walking before they came across a mine cart. "Wanna take a ride?" the leading hedgehog asked, climbing carefully into the cart.

"It could get us through faster." Sonia reasoned with herself, pulling herself in after Raket.

"Let's go!" Light proclaimed, pushing the cart forward and jumping in just before the first drop of their ride. It was like a wooden rollercoaster without seatbelts. The metal cart they sat in jutted and bumped over the track as they soared down and then sharply up, coming level once again for several feet before take a smooth left turn. Their cart continued on a level ground, with bumps every few feet. Sonia suddenly became aware of a chittering above them and the sound of wings. The only winged animal that lived in places like this that she could think of were...bats. They went over a hard bump, echoing through the cave.

"Raket...I think there're bats in here..." Sonia said, looking around at the ceiling. Neither Raket nor Light had time to answer before dozens of lights sparked to life ahead of them. The cart jolted down and suddenly back up the small hill. The lights came closer and the fluttering of wings got louder. The three ducked as a winged shadow swooped by them, just skimming the top of Raket's head. Light turned to see the shadow better, and a light suddenly lit the form. It was a robot bat...One of Eggman's.

"He is here." Light growled, staring at the bat in frustration. "He's got his 'bots all over the place." The fox gestured to the lights they were heading toward. A small curve around an oversized rock put them directly under the bat 'bots. Sonia looked up to get a better look at them, they were slim and purple with a light bulb on the tops of their heads. Their wings were mechanical and matched their bodies color. Beady little eyes followed Team Raket as they went under, and were away from the herd of resting robo bats. One fluttered after the team of three, followed by three more, then five, and more until there were no more bats on the ceiling. "They're following us." Light told his friends, looking back after hearing the bats wings against the air. A sharp left threw Sonia, Light and Raket into the side of their cart.

"This isn't fun at all." Sonia moaned, rubbing her bruised rib. A loud screech was heard behind them, startling the three into turning around. The bat robots behind them seemed like a cloud of light at their distance. "I'll get 'em." Sonia offered, taking her keyboard rifle out and aiming steadily. The eggplant hedgehog managed to shoot down more then half of the flock chasing them before a sharp jolt knocked the weapon from Sonia's hands. "Oh no!" she cried out in dismayed shock, reaching over the edge in hopes of catching it. "My medallion." The rifle fell down, away from the cart. Sonia stared longingly after it. It was her most treasured possession...her mother had given it to her.

"Don't worry Sonia, we'll get it back...I promise." Raket said reassuringly, pulling her back into the cart in time to dodge a wall that almost touched the side of their cart. During the medallion incident, the robo bats had caught up and were attacking the three, Light throwing out punches at any that came too close. The metal creatures flew off as the cart dropped down a sharp hill and straight down into deeper darkness.

**OoOoO**

Team Guardian landed silently on the soft dirt of the mine. Looking around, they found a neatly polished mine cart sitting in wait for them.

"That's weird..." Cloud murmured, following her team over to examine it.

"Should we use it?" Acio asked the echidna and hedgehog standing with her. Anash swept his eyes over it quickly, why did it look so new? "Should we use it?" Acio repeated her question.

"We could try it..." Anash said finally. Acio jumped into the cart, reluctantly followed by Cloud. The wheels spun smoothly as Anash pushed the metal cart and jumped in with the other two Guardians. Their first hill sped them up to a perfect speed, the speed a mine cart should be going. Oil lamps still lined the walls as they went through the track.

"It's a pretty smooth ride." Cloud observed. "Almost like it's new."

"Or fixed to be like new." Anash pointed out. Cloud looked at him curiously, urging the echidna to continue his statement. The black echidna put one hand on the edge of the cart and went on, "They haven't used this model for years. Not since an accident that killed a couple dozen Mobians and humans."

"What happened?" Acio asked, now in the conversation.

"I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but one of the carts went out of control with a Mobian riding with a few pounds of gold. Somehow it went off the track and struck several other miners then went off the edge of another track it got on after colliding with another cart." Anash explained. "There were several other incidents like it, so they replaced this model with the kind they use now." The only noise that could be heard was the rattle of the wheels going over the track and an occasional chittering.

"Hey...are we going faster?" Cloud asked, looking at the oil lamps now going by in blurs. The two black mammals looked around, they _were_ speeding up...but they had been on level ground almost the entire time, how could they speed up? The ride suddenly became a bumpy one. A hard bump shot the three several inches into the air and back down. Cloud held to the edges tightly as the sharp right turn took them into total darkness. All three gasped as they suddenly shot down hill, and as fast as they had gone down, they were up again. Lights dotted the air above them.

"Eggman's robots!" Acio growled, pointing to the metal bats that swooped down at them. Anash slashed the bat in two quickly with 'Emparo'. The robot bats one-by-one lost against the sword the black echidna carried.

"We need to catch one." Cloud said. "We'll need the light." She added quickly. With an annoyed sigh, Anash sheathed 'Emparo' and waited for the bats to catch up with their high-speed cart. One made it, but was caught by Acio's ever-quick cat hands. The bat shrieked and beat its wings wildly, attempting to escape the cat's grip. "Hold on to it." Cloud instructed, grateful for the light the bat made.

"It's squirming." Acio growled at the hedgehog, fighting to keep her grip on the bat, "So it's kinda hard to keep it still."

"Quit fighting." Anash demanded with a fierce growl, "We can see now, that's good enough."

"Now we can at least see where we're going." Cloud grumbled, in no mood to fight with the stubborn echidna. The other bat 'bots disappeared into the darkness behind them, leaving the captured bat the only source of light for Team Guardian to depend on. It still squealed and fought against Acio's grip, its want to be free willing it to fight harder.

"It won't sit still. Isn't there something we can tie it up with?" Acio asked, now holding the bat down against the floor of their cart. Another hard bump jutted the cart forward and toppled Acio into Anash. "Uh...S...Sorry, Anash." The black cat apologized with a slight blush. Cloud turned to face the front and watch what was happening, her eyes suddenly widened.

"Do we have a break?" she asked.

"No, why?" Anash answered after quickly looking around.

"'Cause we really need it..." the hedgehog answered, pointing ahead of them. Even with the little light the mechanical bat provided, they all saw the hill before plummeting down.

**OoOoO**

Laya lit a hand on fire, providing more light for herself and her sisters.

"What was that, back there?" Laya asked, more rhetorical then for an answer.

"What was what?" Sumowa asked, though she had an idea of what her sister was talking about.

"That attack we pulled off during that fight." The orange seedrian answered, moving her hand around to better see her surroundings; nothing but dirt, jewels and wooden support beams.

"I dunno, maybe some special power we have." Sumowa shrugged, following her sister's light. No one answered the statement as they started walking down the mine's dirt path. Laya's fire proved to be much better than any the oil lamps around them could provide. Cosmo mechanically followed her sisters, deep in thought about the attack they had used to destroy the remaining threat in their battle against Eggman. Something about it...seemed familiar. _'Didn't Tails and Sonic talk about something like that before? What did they call it? A team blast?'_ she wondered, struggling to remember the details of that conversation. As her thoughts went back to Tails, her stomach churned as she remembered the reason they were in this dark mine. _'I hope they're okay...'_

"Cosmo! Come on!" Sumowa's voice broke into the green seedrian's thoughts.

"What?" Cosmo looked up to her rainbow colored sister several meters ahead of her.

"I said come on, Laya found a mine cart!" she shouted back. Laya punched the air victoriously as she climbed in, first checking it was safe. Sumowa jumped in after her Cosmo and had given the cart a push down its first hill. It was a smooth first hill, promising an enjoyable ride through the mine. The promise was broken soon after as the mine approached the top of the next, much smaller, hill. The metal cart shot forward with speed as if from nowhere and hit a sharp curve hard, throwing the seedrians into the side of the car. Cosmo rubbed her head where she had knocked it against the hard metal frame. Sumowa held tightly to her arm, the impact against the frame had cut her arm. Laya held tightly to the sides of the cart as it swung around a soft right turn and dropped down. The girls let out a simultaneous yelp of surprise as the cart's drop stopped and they continued, flying across a level ground. A hard bump sent Sumowa and Cosmo into their sister up front. A sudden chittering stopped anything Laya was about to say. The metal cart they rode in seemed to slow down to a normal rate over the smooth track. Cosmo, Sumowa and Laya looked around, where had the chittering come from? A flutter of wings made them all look up and into a cloud of bats coming at them.

"Bats!" Cosmo cried, ducking low as one swept by her.

"No, robots!" Laya corrected, hitting one with a fire ball and watching it fry from the heat. "Eggman set us up." Sumowa threw out a punch as several neared their cart, taking out half of the four that had come at them. The ride got harder. Bumps appeared on the track much more and curves proved to be just as much a pain as the bats that followed, flashing the lights attached to their heads to momentarily blind the seedrians with light, then darkness. The middle seedrian swatted away two bat 'bots as the got close. Still several dozen to go. Laya shot a stream of fire at the rest of the on coming bats; crispy robots fell into the darkness below them. The three sighed in relief as the fluttering and chittering stopped...no more robo bats. Their relief was short lived as the plunged down into the darkness below them, going through a swirl of motion as the descended. All three grabbed the sides of the cart tightly once again.

"Hang on!" Sumowa called over the wind that rushed around them. "Don't let go!"

**OoOoO**

The detectives set quickly down the walkway of the mine they had been dropped off in by the warp ring. The walls shimmered with jewels and light of a flame.

"Now where are we?" Waffle sighed, looking around.

"Looks like a jewel mine." Snow answered.

"Probably where they hide jewels from Rouge." Kaity sneered. She got quick glares from her friends, which she waved off. "Regardless, Eggman must've come through here, so we should too."

Snow looked at the chameleon, hoping for further detail. "How do you know?"

"The print in the dirt is new." Waffle cut in, directing the tiger's attention to the soft dirt. It was only a straight line going through, a sign of the Egg Mobile. "Not so new that we can catch up in a matter of minutes, but fresh enough." The vixen shrugged.

Snow nodded, "Okay then, let's go." She said starting forward once again with Kaity and Waffle following closely behind. The tiger jumped as she felt a hand come down on her shoulder. She spun quickly, facing her chameleon friend in the light.

"It's kinda dark in here, we have to stay together." Kaity shrugged, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder again. Waffle held onto the chameleon's shoulder; no one spoke as they kept going down the trail. A couple of minutes later, the three found a metal mine cart. The three climbed in, and were on their way. The first drop took them through a spiral, and then to a flat path through total darkness. A soft chittering came from close above them. Waffle raised one hand to the ceiling, it touched with no problem. The fox's hand swept over a shadowed shape and sent a shiver down her spine. She had no idea what it was. The flutter of wings made the three wish for light as the sounds repeated itself in a choir of flutters.

"Sounds like bats." Snow whispered, hoping none of the nocturnal creatures woke up.

"I heard bats make nests in your hair and fox tails." The only reptile present grinned through the darkness. Snow and Waffle paid little attention to the chameleon's warning, focusing on the lights that had now appeared below the bats. The robot bats suddenly swarmed around the three detectives, darkness covering them once again. Snow waved her hands about, beating away any that dared come close to her. Something suddenly yanked her hair forward. The tiger paled slightly, remember what her friend had said. Snow let out a yowl as she felt another hard tug.

"It's in my hair!" she cried out, thrashing her arms at her head. She stopped suddenly, she felt something by her head...an arm. Laughter from behind her mixed with the fluttering and chittering of the bats. "Kaity!" the tiger screamed in anger. The chameleon only continued laughing at her cruel joke, though it quickly turned to chocked gasping as the angry tiger gripped her throat.

"Can't...you take...a joke?" the chameleon gasped, trying the slip away from her stronger friend.

"Fight later." Waffle growled through the dark, "Get rid of the bats first." Snow released Kaity, she'd get even later. The white tiger swung 'Dragon Fang' in the air, taking out a sizable amount of the enemy. Kaity pulled a gun from her pocket and fired at the bat 'bots lights that flashed occasionally. While Waffle hit the flying 'bots with fast and well-placed punches. They hadn't been battling long before the bats quickly disbanded and Team Gracious plunged down another hill.

**This is all I've gotten done so far, hopefully I can post more soon.**


	14. Emerald Mines: Act II

**Finally, an update! I think this may be it for a while, I mean, it took me atleast two days to even decide what to do for one of the teams. But I think I'm at a comftorable spot to start another, smaller story. So, maybe that'll help with what seems like on-coming Writer's Block.**

Chapter 14: Emerald Mines: Act II

As the hill leveled from its drop, it bumped sharply, lifting the riders an inch into the air and quickly back down. Up ahead, Team Raket could see the lights from oil lamps in rows on either side of the track, as they flew by, the gems in the walls sparkled beautifully. They were quickly thrown up hill once again and around a rough right turn, right into waiting bat robots. Sonia hit the closest ones wing, sending it spiraling down. Raket's telekinesis destroyed ten of the foes at once, Light grabbed a passing by bot, the light on its head flickering crazily as it struggled, the fox threw the 'bot into a small group coming at him. Light's weapon crashed through the machines, sending them to join their fallen comrades. Sonia took out another bunch with a well-timed punch, throwing two of the nocturnal attackers into more. With their numbers quickly decreasing, the bat 'bots retreated, quickly disappearing into surrounding darkness.

"Well, that was easy." Light commented, watching the bats fly away.

"Probably bringing back more." Raket said. The three suddenly turned sharply, almost throwing them out of the cart. The sharp curve brought them back into the light. The three Mobians paled at the sight of the next obstacle.

"That's not supposed ta be on a mine track..." Light said staring at the loop their cart was speeding towards.

"Oh Chaos..." Sonia groaned, her attention suddenly snapped back. "We gotta stop this thing before we hit the loop!"

"How? There's no brake." The cart hit a hard bump on the track before Sonia could answer, the force of the hit sent them forward faster. With nothing working, the three held tightly to the sides of the cart and closed their eyes as their ride went smoothly over the track and into the loop. Another small bump told the trio they had survived the loop. They opened their eyes to see another danger ahead of them. A yellow sign with a black cross-bone printed into its center was held in place on the track's left side. Two orange lights flashed on the top of the sign. The members of Team Raket paled again at the sight of the sign and the carts sudden acceleration.

"We're gonna go off the edge!" Sonia cried out. Raket struggled to look ahead, the track turned to a fork in the road. There was no way they could guess which track to take...Or was there? Looking back, Raket could still see the sign flashing on the left side of the track. Straining his eyes, he could see they were bound toward the left track once it split. An idea suddenly came to him.

"Sonia, Light, when I say 'now' throw yourself to the right side of the cart." The hedgehog instructed. No one questioned him and did so as Raket cried out the word. The hedgehog quickly jumped to the other side as they passed the split and leveled their cart to the track. Another cart and track became visible in the dim light and the three riding appeared. Team Gracious. The chameleon, Kaity, held out a hand holding Sonia's laser rifle.

"This yours?" she asked over the sounds of the track and carts. Sonia gratefully took the rifle and thanked the group as it transformed once again to its keyboard necklace form. Nothing more could be said before the three females plummeted down into darkness. Another sign came up as their cart was gradually slowing; it looked like the one they had seen before, except the center of the sign was printed with Eggman's logo.

"Eggman, here we come." Sonia snarled, getting ready for the fight to come.

**OoOoO**

Darkness. Pure black was all the three Guardians could see. The cart hit a level track with a hard bump, lightly tossing the trio into the air. As they rumbled down the track, they noticed the drop of the temperature they had before failed to notice. The Guardian on Light looked around, it was like she had her eyes closed; absolutely nothing was visible. Not even her hand she guessed was in front of her nose. Cloud shuttered, if there was one thing she didn't like, it was pure darkness. For what seemed like hours, the only sounds that were heard were the wheels squeaking as they revolved and the quiet clatter of the cart going over the bumpy track. A female voice suddenly broke the silence.

"Where are we?" Acio wondered. The remaining two had asked themselves that very question, but did not voice their thoughts.

"Probably on one of the old mine tracks. The ones they used to get the gems deeper in the mine." Anash answered at last.

"Then where's the lamps?" Cloud pointed out, gesturing to the blackness around them. Though no one saw the gesture.

Anash's shrug wasn't seen in the darkness, "Out, maybe? It's been a while since these were used, after all."

"Other ones worked." Acio said, adding to Cloud's point. Another silence took over as the only male on the team tried to think of a reasonable counter. Before he could speak, the cart hit a bump and sped them up. A hard left brought them into a tunnel of light. The three blinked a few times, adjusting to the sudden light. Their cart went steadily along the track, the tunnel around them slowly widening out. A sign similar to the one Team Raket saw came into view, only this sign was on the right side of the track. Despite the smooth ride, the cart gained speed, too much to be comfortable with. Team Guardian went through quickly, a fork in the road closing in quickly. The sign from before flashed through Acio's mind; something bad was about to happen. Cloud and Anash must have gotten the same idea; they looked at one another, racking their minds for a way to safety. _'Which side was the sign on?'_ Cloud asked herself, hoping it had some significance to their decision. She was sure it had been the right. The hedgehog's mind worked quickly, looking for a way to be sure that she and her team would was safe, and their cart was bound toward the right, the track the sign was obviously warning them about. An idea suddenly struck Cloud. Her teammates looked at her, having the same thought. They nodded in unison as the time to decide which track came. All three threw themselves to the left side of the cart, their combined weight and force tipping it onto two wheels, assuring they would go to the left track. It almost toppled, but Anash quickly jumped to the other side and balanced it levelly on the track. The three sighed in relief, for a moment, they had doubted their plan. A smooth curve turned them right, followed by left turn. The cart kept its speed, pulling them down a small hill and under another track; Cloud looked up, surprised to see others. A female hedgehog was looking at something, she couldn't quite see what, but she could see a yellow fox and a silver hedgehog in the same cart. The only female looked up from what she was looking at.

"Eggman, here we come." She snarled. That was all she heard before they were taken back up hill and level under the other team's track. Another gentle curve brought them out from under the other track, and up-hill, passing another track. This one with a cart holding the three she recognized and was set on catching.

"Everyone ready?" the tan female fox asked, looking at her team. The hedgehog didn't hear the answer as they flew up the hill and past a sign with Eggman's logo printed on.

**OoOoO**

The three seedrians plummeted down, the wind whistling around them. They took a sharp left curve almost immediately after they touched down from the drop. Laya let out a yelp at the hard turn, falling into Cosmo. Oil lamps slowly began to appear on either side of the tunnel they had entered during some point of their ride through darkness, lighting the area dimly.

"Laya, we need more light." Sumowa said, turning to her youngest sister. The fire-controlling seedrian nodded and obliged to her sister's request. Now that the track was visible, they watched it for a moment, bracing themselves for another fall. It seemed to be a straight track for a while. Cosmo looked around quickly; the fluttering of wings had already reached her ears. But none of the bat robots came into view.

"They must be hiding..." she said quietly, glancing over to her sisters. They must not have heard it. Laya seemed focused in the tracks, and Sumowa seemed deep in thought, probably trying to make sense of the whole situation. This left Cosmo to watch for enemies. As the three went quietly along, Cosmo thought she could hear a small _beep_ coming from her left. Nothing but a dirt wall with gems sticking out.

'_I must be hearing things...'_ she thought, slightly worried. But when the beeping came back, louder and seemed to have more, all three looked around. The sound was coming from everywhere. Sumowa was the first to figure it out. As they went by, a blue jewel seemed to flicker a faint tint of red...a bomb.

"Oh no..." she murmured, growing slightly pale. "This whole tunnel is gonna blow!" the rainbow seedrian told her sisters, looking for a way to accelerate their cart. Her sisters joined her frantic search. The cart hit a hard bump, jolting them forward.

"I've got an idea!" Laya announced suddenly, grabbing one of the jewels from the wall as they flew by.

"Laya! What're you doing!?" Cosmo and Sumowa cried out.

"Just watch." The youngest seedrian threw the jewel bomb in front of the cart, another bump hit them and they accelerated. "We have to hit something to go faster!" the seedrian didn't wait for an answer from her shocked sisters, she reached across to the wall again, it was getting farther from them. She managed to grab a purple gem and a yellow gem and threw the first one in front of them. They accelerated. The other seedrians reached out for the jewels, taking as many as they could for speed reasons. There was another _beep_ then a _click_ and the tunnel behind them rumbled from the far-off sound of an explosion catching up quickly. That seemed like enough inspiration for the team to throw as many as of the gems that they could. The ride was rough and bumpy, but they went faster, narrowly escaping the tunnel and soaring up-hill. Laya's hand was once more lit for a source of light. The three were slightly shaken by the near-death experience, but they relaxed as they reached the top of the hill and continued on straight.

"Now how do we slow down?" Cosmo asked, looking over to her youngest sister.

Laya shrugged. "I was kinda hoping one of you would figure that out..." she admitted quietly. Another hill took them up, passing another track, only Cosmo could look down, even so, not for very long. The green seedrian studied the other track, trying to remember if they had been there before. Another cart went by, suddenly being shot up, past the three. Through the dim light Laya's flame provided, Cosmo could see a white tiger holding onto the sides of the cart. _'Haven't I seen her before?'_ the green plant girl wondered. She never got her answer as the three went by a yellow sign marked with Eggman's logo leading into a darkened tunnel.

**OoOoO**

The three went sharply up-hill as they touched down, and flew around a hard curve. Snow groaned as her chameleon friend slammed into her from the force of the turn.

"Sorry..." the chameleon apologized quietly pulling herself into a sitting position. Another smoother turn took the detectives into a tunnel lined with the familiar oil lamps that were set through out the mine.

"Okay, what now?" Waffle asked, resting her elbow on the rim of the cart.

"I guess we wait until the cart stops and find Eggman." Snow shrugged. The three exited the tunnel into more darkness. "And we actually get to see which way we're going." Snow added with a sigh. As she said this, something dropped to the floor of the cart with a light _thunk_. Realizing it was closer to her, the white tiger carefully picked up the object. A quick dip and turn took them through a short tunnel, but it was enough light to see what the object was.

"Didn't that crazy hedgehog girl have that?" Waffle asked, trying to think of the hedgehog's name.

"Yep." Kaity nodded, taking the keyboard rifle.

"We should return it."

"How? We're stuck traveling in a mine."

"But she's probably here if that is." Waffle pointed out. The chameleon blinked, though unseen in the darkness that now surrounded them.

"Look, a sign." Snow cut in, pointing ahead to an orange flashing light connected to a yellow sign that was just barely seen through the dark. "What's it say?"

The vixen in the group strained her eyes to see as they neared the sign. The orange lights helped a little, she could see what looked like black tracks printed onto the yellow surface. "Looks like mine tracks...uh oh..." The vixen saw the picture clearly for a moment as the orange light flashed; it was the mine tracks printed on the sign, the only thing Waffle did not see until after is that the sign pictures broken mine tracks. "Broken..." she murmured.

"Whadda we do?" Kaity asked, acting calmer then she felt.

"We get out." Snow said, hearing the rumble of an approaching cart just next to them. "Come on." Without waiting, she grabbed both teammates by the wrist and carefully jumped over to the next track, landing them safely into another cart. Neither of the two had a chance to thank her before the new cart shot roughly uphill, into a dimly lit area where their track lined with another. Team Raket's track.

Kaity put the rifle out at arm's length upon seeing the surprised faces of the team. "This yours?" she asked. The hedgehog, who they now remembered as 'Sonia' thanked the three and took back the rifle. Team Gracious plummeted down suddenly, knocking the wind from them. As the three went sharply down, they passed what looked like a floating flame in another cart, though none of the three really took a close look. It seemed like they had been climbing the hill forever until a yellow sign holding Eggman's logo at last came into view as they continued up.

"Everyone ready?" Waffle asked, tightening her grip on the sides of their cart.

"Yep." Snow answered, staring hard at the track dimly lit in front of them.

"Ready." Kaity added, a sly grin going slowly over her muzzle. The smile, however, dropped, as did the hard stare at the track as they sped up and saw the hole in their way. The three could only scream as they went into a free-fall down the giant gap.

**can't think of anything to say...Except that this looked bigger in the document!**


	15. Egg Drill

**At LAST!! An OC Heroes Update! After...how long's it been? I dunno, some odd months. BUT, I'm just happy I can finally get back to wokring on this, Writer's Block no longer has control over me, so I'll try and update more often then I have as of recently.**

**WARNING: Characters may be OOC, so please tell me if I did make them OOC here so I can fix it in the next chapter.**

Chapter 15: Egg Drill

The mine cart rolled through into an area of dim light, the sign long since passed. Another plummet A loud yet hollow _click_ signaled to the three it was alright to exit the cart. Sonia was the first one out of the cart followed by Raket and Light. The yellow fox's vision adjusted easer than his teammates' but his sensitive ears kept him aware of their surroundings. From what they could see, anything that had shape was black and anything else was a blacker background. They could see a path of black and a blacker color under it. _'So, one wrong step and we fall.'_ Light concluded.

Raket must have come to a same conclusion. The silver hedgehog carefully approached the edge and looked down. "Looks like a long drop…we should be careful."

"Ya think?" Light chuckled. Starting down the path that could have been no wider than two mobians standing by one another. Raket looked around for any enemies that could appear from the darkness. The light suddenly flashed on, blinding the three mammals; they blinked hard to clear their vision. Now they could see they were standing about a pit of black that seemed endless. Just ahead of the tan stone they walked across, Team Raket saw it eventually turn into a circle, the pit below showing under the path that ran around it. Raket made a quick bird's-eye view of their location; a balloon and child would draw a circle with a line on the bottom. As soon as Raket, Light and Sonia stepped onto the circle the path they had previously been on suddenly jutted away and disappeared to the side that the three had come from.

"Well, so much for going back." Raket chuckled, a nervous note hitting in his tone. Sonia opened her mouth to respond, but was stopped by Light, who put a hand out to quiet them.

"Listen…" He said, "Sounds like drilling." Both hedgehogs and the fox listened, it _did_ sound like drilling. All at once, the team looked up, pin pointing where the sound was coming from.

"From above us…?" Sonia didn't sound too convinced that would be happening. Not until a shining drill broke through the hard-packed rocks and brought down a shower of loosened dirt and a purple sphere that was connected to the drill. As it fell, Sonia could see the purple sphere was actually a machine. As it came down, the machine shot out two spider-like legs and slammed down on the little path they had. From that point, they could see the flattened purple plates attached to the legs to balance the machine. Raket noticed four of the mechanical legs seemed to have been ripped off. Though he couldn't understand why that would be part of the machine's design. Now that the dust had settled and the machine stood still, Team Raket could see Eggman's logo dead center on the machine that stood at least fifty feet over them, but the glass cockpit couldn't hide the obvious figure of Eggman sitting at the controls.

"We'll get him this time." Sonia said, assuring her teammates with a knowing smirk. Both Raket and Light took a defensive stance. When he felt his foot tap against something, Light looked down. What an odd looking key. No sooner had the fox touched the key, a flash of bright light blinded them.

_Begin Special Mission: Emerald Challenge_

No one had time to speak before a white emerald flew past them, with no signs of slowing down. No one wasted time with words; they all had the same goal in mind already: Catch that emerald. Light was just out of reach of the white gem when Sonia suddenly shouted a warning to him. "Light! Bombs!" Instinctively, the electric yellow fox swerved away from the bombs, losing speed and adding to the space between himself and the emerald. Sonia came up on the fox's right and Raket on the left.

"You okay?" Raket asked. The fox nodded. "We should catch this thing fast, if Eggman gets this, it could be bad for the whole planet."

A sudden thought struck Sonia, "Raket, can you stop it with your telekinesis?" the female asked.

Raket watched the emerald make a swift turn downward. "I think so…but it might take a second." The silver hedgehog said at last.

"The path is straight in a little bit, can you get it then?"

"I'm pretty sure."

"In the meantime, stay close to it." Light said, pushing forward. As Sonia had said, the path straightened after another field of bombs and the gap had closed about half way. Raket concentrated on the speeding emerald, a small tint of blue formed around it, slowing it down little by little. But that was all the three needed to catch it.

_End Special Stage: Emerald Challenge_

A shadow appeared over the three as soon as the light faded, causing the three to jump away. A thick plate of purple smashed the ground team Raket had previously been standing on. With a snarl of anger, Eggman released the drill from the machine; it flew at the three, aided by rocket boosters, spinning at a wild speed. Automatically, they dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the weapon. Sonia uncovered her head, feeling an arm wrap around her. A tint of pink colored her muzzle; Raket had all but threw himself on her to keep the eggplant colored hedgehog safe. The drill returned to its place. The white eyes of the familiar logo opened to reveal duel-laser cannons.

"Fire!" Eggman cackled. No one had time to move before the mad doctor slammed down a button. Nothing happened. Eggman muttered curses behind his mustache. "Still broken" he snarled, pounding the control panel. Team Raket were already on their feet and looking at each other. _Another_ broken part, obviously unintentional, according to the doctor's statement.

"Looks like he doesn't have many weapons." Sonia observed.

"We should take him out easily, then." Light nodded.

Sonia's medallion transformed on command. "If we can reach the cockpit, it'll be easy to get Eggman." The female reasoned, readying her laser rifle.

The silver hedgehog nodded "I can get you and Light up there for a while." A faint glow of light blue surrounded Raket's teammates as they lifted off the ground.

Eggman was still cursing his luck when the two leveled with him.

"Hi. Bye." Light grinned, performing a homing attack; aided by Raket. Sonic fired her laser rifle, the purple machine rocking somewhat with each glowing pink bullet. From inside, Eggman chuckled, the attacks had done nothing! The heroes stood- or floated- in bewilderment. "How…we didn't even make a mark!" the electric yellow fox half growled. Raket looked on from below, until shadow covered him. The grounded hedgie jumped away from the machine's foot that slammed the ground. For that moment, the hedgehog lost his hold on his friends, both fell, staring down into the fast-approaching blackness of the hole beneath them. The two called out simultaneously. From the ground, Raket jerked his up toward his falling friends, and immediately caught them in his hold once more, bringing them back to solid ground.

"He's gotta have a weak point." Raket said, glaring meaningfully at the metal enemy. His brown eyes locked on the broken legs…could that be…? Light was having the same idea and when at the robot's spider-like leg without a moment's thought. A few well-placed hits and the leg came off at what would be the knee of it. Almost immediately, the machine reacted, swinging the stub at Light, successfully hitting its mark, and then pulling itself onto the one leg that stood on the other side of the battlefield.

"That's it!" Sonia squealed in triumphant. "We just need to take off the other leg, and he's beat." Eggman's machine adjusted to the handicap rather quickly, making use of its single leg to hop around to the three heroes. With each ground-shaking hop, the ground was left with spider web cracks.

"We gotta hit him the first time, or we might become part of the ground." Raket said. A shadow cast over the three, but froze in the air, trapped by telekinesis. The light blue light ripped the mechanical leg from its place and threw it across the battle ground, leaving Eggman to go down with his machine.

"You'll pay for this!" they heard the angry doctor yell as he was swallowed by the blackness.

**OoOoO**

Team Guardian's cart came to a quiet stop, though the movement had not stopped them from jumping out ahead of time. Everything around them was black. No light shined through to them. But they had been going through darkness for some time now, so it was no problem adjusting to the lighting of the room. The guardians padded quietly across the floating path, ever alert of the stillness around them. The sudden sound of rock grinding rock made them turn; their walkway had departed and left them stranded on the circle of earth. Lights flared up around them, chasing the darkness into corners.

"Where are we…?" Acio wondered, scanning the room they were in, it didn't look like any exits were close by.

Anash almost answered, but a rumbling above them was the only thing stopping him. All eyes went toward the ceiling, where a drilling was heard from. The Egg Drill dropped from the ceiling, hitting hard against the ground.

"Eggman." Cloud growled, spotting the human in the machine's cockpit. The guardians spread out quickly as a metal leg smashed the ground they had previously been standing on.

Acio pointed to the joints where the leg protruded from the machine, "Looks like two of the legs were broken." She pointed out, the Guardiand of Light and Darkness both looked in the direction their cat teammate had pointed in, confirming her point; small live wires danced in place of the missing parts.

"Looks like they got ripped off." Anash answered thoughtfully.

"So that must be a weakness." Cloud added, noting that no other scratches or dents had been made to the Egg Drill. The two black mammals jumped from a laser cannon fire from the heart of the Egg Drill.

"First things first, we should get rid of those cannons." Acio said, landing with perfect cat-like grace. Cloud nodded, it shouldn't be too hard a task. The Guardian of Spirit had already drawn an arrow and notched it into place on her bow. With careful aim, released it, sending the arrow flying into the cannon's muzzle. A perfect hit. The cannon's inside glowed with blue shocks of electricity. Cloud was just as quick with eliminating the next cannon; scaling the leg of the Egg Drill, she jumped out to the cannon and struck hard with a Mega Kick. The dent fit her foot perfectly. Cloud pushed off the damaged cannon and landed just on the ground's edge.

"Now to destroy it." Anash grinned. The black echidna followed Cloud's idea of scaling the robot leg, but hesitated on sight of another gun pointed at him. He tensed, he could jump, but had almost no chance of landing safely, and going closer to that gun could be suicidal. From inside the cockpit, Cloud could hear Eggman chuckle with a dark glee, like he was about to do something. When nothing happened, all three Mobians heard Eggman shout in anger, cursing some other people. Someone must have messed with the machine before they had gotten to it.

"Anash, destroy it, now!" cobalt hedgehog yelled up to the still tensed echidna. Said echidna spent only a moment registering what his temporary teammate had said and cut through the leg easily with his spirit claws. Eggman's machine adapted to its lack of limb surprisingly fast, it brought itself up, on its only standing leg, resembling a mechanical lollipop. Anash, with no time to find an escape route, clung to the machine as it went to it's new position, climbing down to the ground.

"Well that sort of worked." He commented.

Acio had notched another arrow, pointed it to the hinge that allowed the spider-like leg to bend and fired. The shot struck and did surprising damage, nearly knocking the machine and its creator into the hole beneath them. Cloud, seeing this would be the final blow, released a gold ring to finish their opponent. Just as the cobalt female expected, the ring sliced cleanly through the limb, sending the machine down and disappearing into the black hole below.

"You'll pay for this!" Eggman yelled in frustration as he went down and disappeared from sight.

**OoOoO**

Team Earthia slipped out of their mine cart and onto the solid ground. Cosmo was the first out and looking around, it was too dim to make out anything clearly, but her eyes had adjusted enough to tell what was solid and what was not. She motioned her two sisters forward.

"This way." She said, going down a suspended path of solid ground, approaching a circle. When the green seedrian looked back, it was clear they would not be able to jump back to the mine cart if anything went wrong, and to makes things worse for the seedrian sisters, their path zipped away not a second after reaching the circle of ground. All three girls spun to watch it in surprise, now they were stranded.

"Does anyone else hear drilling?" Sumowa asked, looking around for the sound. Laya and Cosmo looked around as well, now hearing the sound as it go closer. All three heads snapped up when a sudden blur of purple fell from the dirt ceiling and caught itself on the same ground team Earthia stood on.

Laya took a step away from the Egg Drill, "What _is_ that?" she asked, looking the machine over. The orange seedrian's eyes stopped in the familiar Eggman logo. "It's one of Eggman's machines." She growled, clenching her fists, creating an orb of fire on each. "Let's get 'im."

"Don't you think we should make a plan first?" Sumowa asked, already knowing her sisters' thoughts.

"We have to stop Eggman quickly, Sumowa." Cosmo put in, looking up at the machine. "If he's taken our friends, then we need to stop him…" She repeated quietly. Sumowa only took a minute of thought, twisting her rainbow-colored hair around one finger.

"You're right. But this thing looks pretty strong, take it down quick." Without another word, the three went their separate ways to attack.

With an attack already waiting, Laya threw the fireballs in her hands at the machine's haul; nothing happened. A gun suddenly came from the machine and launched a missile at the youngest seedrian. She jumped away accordingly, firing two more attacks at where the missile had been released. Something inside the machine exploded from the sudden burst of fire.

Inside the cockpit, Eggman growled, "This is only the beginning!" He pressed a button from inside and the drill attached to the machine spun fast and was released from its place, flying directly at the green Seedrian who was looking for a way to attack. Sumowa tried to summon any plant life around her, but found none she could control. '_We're too far underground._' She realized, taking off for her little sister, pulling her away just in time, and accidentally ramming into the robot's leg.

"Thanks, Sumowa." Cosmo said, releasing the breath she had been holding."

"No problem." Sumowa answered, "But I think the drill is coming back." Sumowa looked back; sure enough, the drill had doubled around and was heading back for them. Cosmo jumped up, pulling the oldest seedrian with her, but diving to the ground just seconds later to avoid the drill. Eggman's own weapon sliced neatly through the leg of the machine, causing an instinctive change in its stance, moving up on its only leg. Sumowa looked at Cosmo, who looked to Laya, who was looking at the oldest of the Seedrians.

"We have to destroy the legs to destroy the machine." Cosmo said finally.

"Then what are we standing here for?" Laya asked impatiently, spinning toward the upright machine and charging, readying a fire in either hand. The older two seedrians grabbed their little sister away from the Egg Drill as it suddenly began to spring around the ground like a crazed rabbit.

"What's it doing…?" Sumowa asked, watching and waiting for whatever move Eggman was about to make.

"It's trying to hit us!" Laya gasped, backing off just in time to keep herself from being flattened by the Egg Drill as it landed in front of them. "Quick! Knock its leg off!" the orange seedrian girl said, throwing a quickly-formed fire ball at it. The machine wobbled, but remained standing.

"One more should do it." Cosmo said, watching her sister form another flame. As it was released, Sumowa rammed her shoulder into the machine. With the force of both the attack and Sumowa, the Egg Drill fell into the circle of darkness below them.

"You'll pay for this!" Eggman yelled up to them, disappearing into the pit.

**OoOoO**

The two mammals and chameleon held tightly to the sides of their cart as they plummeted down. An unexpected stop sent Snow and Kaity forward into Waffle, who hit the rim of their cart. The three looked at the dimly let area they had stopped in.

"But, I thought we-" Snow started

"Hidden tracks." Kaity cut in; looking back at the tracks they had not seen. Waffle climbed out and looked around.

"Doesn't look like there's much around here…except the path." The tan vixen pointed to a pathway leading far out. Her two friends followed her example and joined her. Snow started down the path, her ears perked up and listening for anything hiding in the darkness.

Kaity followed after Snow. "So, anyone wanna guess where we are?" the chameleon asked.

"Somewhere deep underground." Snow said matter-of-factly.

"Maybe under one of Eggman's bases." Waffle suggested, "After all, Eggman came through here too." No one could retort before their only link back to the mine cart snapped away from them. All three automatically tightened, looking for anything coming at them. After a moment of listening, Waffle straightened. "Do you guys hear drilling?" she asked, both Snow and Kaity looked at their teammate curiously, then heard the same drilling.

"Coming from the ceiling…?" Snow asked, looking up. Team Gracious jumped back as the Egg Drill fell from the ceiling and stopped on the platform.

"Eggman." Kaity growled, clenching her fists tightly. Without another word, the chameleon launched a ninja star the size of a truck tire at the machine's haul. It rebounded and the three threw themselves to the ground to avoid it.

Waffle propped herself up on her elbows and scowled at the youngest member. "Good idea, let's just throw stuff at it!"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Kaity said in her own defense.

"Fight Eggman, not each other." Snow growled, getting to her feet and pointing to the only two legs left of the Egg Drill. "It looks like other parts of the machine have been ripped off. So we have to target the legs of it, that'll be a sure win."

"Yeah, only we need Eggman so we can ask 'im questions." Kaity said, jumping to her feet and pulling Waffle up.

"Let's try and get Eggman, if we can't, then we'll just destroy the machine." The fox girl reasoned. "Kaity, get up to the cockpit and get Eggman, Snow and I will keep him distracted while you get up there."

"Rodger." Kaity nodded, running off toward the nearest limb connected to the machine. While Kaity followed her orders, the drill of the machine snapped loose and flew at the remaining two girls. Snow unsheathed Dragon Fang and jumped to the just as the drill came at them, dragging her blade across the side of it. Waffle jumped away, putting up her guard against bits of the ground that were kicked up.

Kaity just started scaling the robotic limb before Eggman caught sight of her. In a swift move, the Egg Drill was balancing on its other leg, leaving the chameleon girl to cling to the cold metal. "Hey guys, I don't think questionin' Eggman is gonna be an option." She called, tilting her head up to look down to her allies. "And I may need a little help getting' down…" she added.

"Shouldn't be too hard to get the leg off." Snow grinned, pouncing at the grounded limb, Dragon Fang poised to strike, with a swift glint of metal on their dimly-lit surroundings, Snow landed softly on the ground and Eggman's machine went into a plummet toward the middle of their battle arena.

The chameleon detective moved quickly up the machine, toward the solid land her team stood on. The run there was an easy one, but the final leap she would not have made, hadn't it been from her two friends ready to catch her when she came.

"Well, that sort of worked." Waffle shrugged, watching the Egg Drill go down.

**Now onto the next zone...It's taken 15 chapters to write four full zones out of seven, who wants to guess how many chapters there's gonna be? XD**


	16. Illusionary Forest: Act I

**I'm glad to get this chapter out in a much shorter time then the last chapter, even if it has been more than a month...BUT anyway, we're now onto our fifth zone...by now, Team Sonic probably had less than 12 hours to find Eggman. XD The second day has only just begun for the OC Heroes! Anyway, enjoy...'cause it's gonna be a while till the next one.**

Chapter 16: Illusionary Forest: Act I

Raket, Light and Sonia landed safely on the ground as the warp ring behind them closed. The trio studied their surroundings; it looked like an average forest at night. With one exception; while some things in the forest seemed solid, others looked transparent.

"Well, this looks…promising…" Sonia said, trying to lighten the sudden uneasy feeling that surrounded them.

Light nodded. "Yeah, if you wanna get lost in a half-existing forest, this place is defiantly promising."

"Light!" Raket snapped, seeing the sudden discouraging look slide across Sonia's features. "We'll find our way through, all we gotta do is stay on the path." Both hedgehogs started down a dirt path, well worn by travelers, before their yellow friend could argue farther. Without another word, Light followed, observing everything around them. Even some of the animals seemed to only exist to a point in the forest.

"What kinda place is this?" he murmured, watching what looked like a transparent tiger disappear into near by undergrowth.

"Do you think Eggman went through here?" Sonia asked, bringing the fox from his own thoughts.

"We've found Eggman everywhere else the warp ring took us, so I guess we'll find him here too." Raket shrugged, pushing aside a low branch.

"Raket, what if he's just leading us in circles?" Light suggested, "I mean, it's already been a day and he's popping up everywhere we go and the first one was a robot." His ears suddenly twitched, "Hear that?"

The silver hedgehog listened carefully and heard it too, a quiet rustle of movement. "Something's coming." He said quietly. Sonia, as if on instinct, summoned her keyboard rifle and waited for the something to reveal itself.

Another rustle of movement somewhere around them. All three were on alert, but patiently waiting. Suddenly, with a sudden blur of motion, a pack of tigers charged the group from the team's left, growling hungrily and locking eyes with their prey. Sonic yelped and fired at one, the bullet of energy passed right through the beast, but somewhere behind it, another one in the pack toppled to the ground suddenly and disappeared. One tiger with silver stripes, obviously the leader, sprang at Sonia. The eggplant colored hedge-girl backed up as the tiger came down, just at her silver teammate met the tiger, hand-to-claw. The silver stripes glowed brightly and the creature growled at the hedgehog that had jumped in front of its prey. The pack followed their leader's example.

"It looks like they're disappearing." Light pointed to the solid-looking tigers that slowly faded to match their transparent brothers.

Sonia spoke up now. "They're getting ready to attack!" The hedge-girl aimed her weapon at the nearest tiger, which showed no signs of backing down. It lunged at Sonia, a part of the group going after the other teammates.

Light jumped back as one pounced, just missing the sharpened claws of the tiger. Another caught him off-guard and jumped Light, successfully knocking the fox off his feet. The yellow mammal shielded himself against claws swiping at his face.

Raket side-stepped a tiger, it managed to cut his side open as it went by, though. _'How can these things fight if they're transparent?'_ he asked himself. Swinging a hard kick at a grey-striped tiger which fell back from the blow. That was the first hit he'd made since their battle had started and there were still more of the creatures to fight. "There's too many of them." He called to his teammates at last, "We gotta retreat." No one argued with the hedgie, slipping away from their attackers and following after Raket into the thicket. The tigers followed fast, only a yard away from their target.

"Raket, look, a warp ring!" Sonic cried pointing to the gold ring spinning slowly a few meters in front of them.

"Good, I'm tired of being fast food." Light joked, grabbing both hedgehogs and running at top speed. The leader of the pack pounced, neither of the hedgehogs had time to move before their fast friend hit the warp ring and said tiger disappeared.

**OoOoO**

A chorus of screams greeted the three guardians as they landed in the most unusual looking forest.

Acio's ear perked at the scream. "Someone's in trouble." She said, already reaching for her trusty bow and arrow. The black cat pulled the string back, readying for an instant attack if needed. Anash and Cloud braced themselves for anything they would be hit with, but were surprised to see a fox, white tiger and chameleon burst out of the bushes and by them.

The hedgehog of the group snapped into an instant double take, recognizing all three as who she was looking for. "Hey-!" she started, almost running after the three but was suddenly pulled back be a hand, which she found out belonged to Anash. The echidna gestured a pack of wolves that had emerged from the forest after the three girls, all oddly colored and transparent.

"What kind of wolves are-" Acio started, lowering her bow to gaze curiously at the new arrivals, only to throw up her guard again and fire off an arrow as green wolf lunged at her. For a fleeting second, the idea that the arrow would do nothing but pass through the transparent wolf came to her mind, but was surprised to see the arrow stick into its chest and fall to the ground whimpering and growling in pain. _'How was that possible…?'_ The cat asked herself, unnoticing of the five other wolves that came out from the bush.

Anash, however, did notice and took no time hesitating or wondering why. With Emparo unsheathed, he charged the four-legged creatures, slashing at any thing that got in his way. If that was what had to be done to get them through, it didn't matter to him how many were killed.

Cloud's thoughts strayed back to the three girls that had ran by, they wouldn't get away this time. A rustle of movement pushed the thought away, more wolfs came from behind the bush. The cobalt hedgehog raised a furry eyebrow; she was confused and at the same time fascinated, the only time more wolves came through were when one of their brethren fell. _'They're multiplying somehow…'_she noted, _'That's why those other three ran.'_ Knowing this, and again the thought of the mystery three, the Guardian of Light came to the only conclusion that would get them out alive; retreat.

A mess of multi-colored wolves lay across the ground, both black mammals taking out the creatures where ever they could. "They're multiplying," the hedgie called to her team, "We have to retreat."

The Guardian of Darkness didn't seem too happy with the idea but begrudgingly followed after Cloud and Acio as they followed off the same direction of the other three Mobians that had come across. Cloud took the lead, glancing swiftly around the odd forest for any signs of the three, but found no sign of them. Only the occasional shadow of non-existing figures and the sight of a fire.

"Hey Cloud, we got the wolves coming after us." Acio reported, gesturing back to the angry canines following them.

"And there's a warp ring up ahead." Anash countered matter-of-factly. "We'll beat them there easily." True to the echidna's statement, the three guardians hit the warp ring and disappeared from the area, leaving baffled wolves behind.

**OoOoO**

Team Earthia hit the ground running, a pack of long-fanged lions following immediately behind them. A wall of fire lining one side of their path and forest on the other; shadows or running figures was all they could see across the wood. The three could hear talking, but nothing came through clearly, something about wolves.

"Guess we're not the only one having problems." Cosmo said, picking up speed to keep close to her sisters.

"We don't even know where we are." Laya retorted. "Or…why the lions have giant fangs." The chase continued, the seedrians always a few steps ahead to their pursuers. Whatever talking had stopped on the other side, howling took its place. A rustle and pad of feet against the ground suddenly alerted Sumowa of something else coming for them and for a second considered chancing the fire wall to get them to safety, after all, Laya could control the fire, it would be easy. The train of thought suddenly broke at the scream of the middle seedrian's scream; a green wolf had broken through the woods and hit Cosmo at full force, sending her sprawling into the fire. Laya immediately moved to pull her sister from the flames, but was surprised to see not a single burn on the green plant-girl.

The green seedrian didn't seem as concerned about the fire as she did the deep scratches that traced down her arm. Cosmo grit her teeth in pain as blood flowed slowly from the wound, there wasn't a lot of blood, but it couldn't be overlooked as just a scratch either. Laya and Sumowa glanced around, there was nothing in sight that could be used to help their sister's wound.

"We'll have to bandage that later." Sumowa said, taking her sister's good arm to help her to her feet. "But we probably can at least something about any burns you have after falling into that fire."

Cosmo stared at her older sister as if she had snakes for hair, "I didn't fall into the fire." She said.

"Yeah you did, we saw it." Laya insisted.

The wounded plant-girl looked at the fire wall curiously, "But I didn't feel it…" She went over to the wall and tentatively put an arm in; it didn't hurt at all, no heat, no pain. It felt like air. "It must be an illusion." She murmured, stepping in farther, now with her sisters following. The other side of the fire was nothing but woods, woods and odd-looking animals.

"This place is weird." Laya uttered, eyeing a pink owl who stared back at her. "What're you looking at?" she challenged to the owl, which fluttered off in a hurry as the youngest seedrian displayed her fire abilities. Team Earthia went on cautiously, stopping at the sound of rustling. After a moment, they heard the sound of someone running, and went closer to investigate. They stayed hidden in the woods and spotted a yellow fox in a red shirt and blue jeans talking with an interestingly colored female hedgehog and a silver male with a blue diamond on his forehead.

"Good, I'm tired of being fast food." The yellow fox said in a joking tone, which obviously meant something to the team, given their efforts not to laugh at it.

"Hey, maybe they can help us." Sumowa said. And as this was said, the fox grabbed his teammates and sped off, leaving the plant-girls to chase after them.

"He's _fast_" Laya observed, following after her sisters. "But then again, I would go pretty fast too if I was being chased by tigers." At that moment, all three sisters did a double take to the tigers now after their new targets.

"Shoot…" Sumowa grumbled, "Quick! Into the warp ring!" the rainbow seedrian took a diving leap into the ring, followed almost immediately by her sisters.

**OoOoO**

The reptile of Team Gracious took a moment to scan their new surroundings, they seemed odd. Snow and Waffle followed after her as she went on down the trial.

"This place looks creepy…" Waffle uttered to herself.

"Yeah, but Eggman might've run through here, so we should take a look around." Kaity said, keeping her pace fast but controlled.

"And with our luck so far," Snow started, "We'll probably see him at the end of all this." The white tiger looked around uncertain if the forest they were walking through was real. There was a sudden rustle as the three walked, before any of them could so much as look up, one member became a blue of white and blue. At least until she hit the ground. The white tiger was pinned down by a blue, hungry-looking wolf. The beast suddenly let out a pained squeal and seemed to go limp on top of Snow.

"Problem solved." Kaity said with a smirk, stepping over the dead wolf, a kunai sticking from its back, to pull her friend up. "Ya alright?" she asked.

Snow couldn't answer before Waffle started talking. "Um…I don't think those three are gonna be too happy about their dead friend." She pointed to three wolves that emerged from the same place as the first wolf had, sniffing around and turning fierce glares to the team as they found their dead companion.

Snow drew her sword and spoke, "It's only three. It shouldn't be too hard." And as she had predicted, the wolves were taken down with great ease; only to be replaced by six more.

"Okay, this isn't normal." Kaity observed in a matter-of-fact tone while the wolves formed a half-circle around the three girls.

Waffle took a fighting stance. "So what do we do?"

"What you always do when your enemies can multiply; run." The chameleon answered, jumping back from the snapping jaws of a black striped wolf. Out of instinct, a kunai was embedded into the creature, more wolves followed after the others. Neither Waffle nor Snow argued after that, both mammals hurried off in the opposite direction of the wolves and didn't dare look back. The youngest of the team took an easy lead, having the advantage of speed, the three brushed past an odd-looking group; a hedgehog, echidna and cat all standing in momentary shock of their appearance. But the team of detectives went on, not bothering an explanation to the three, it's not like they would ever meet again, right?

The tan vixen chanced a glance behind and started to slow down. "Hey guys, the wolves are gone." She called to them.

"That's great, but we still don't know what's in these woods, so let's not slow down." Snow answered, recalling a few brief encounters with mysterious red eyes and suddenly wondering if they would appear again.

"I agree with Snow, the faster we get through here, the faster we find Eggman." The hot purple chameleon nodded, keeping her speed at a constant rate. With the thoughts of what could possibly be hiding in the odd woods around them, none of the three heard their pursuers in the distance far or noticed the fast pad of footsteps as they leapt one by one through the warp ring that took them safely from that are of the forest.

**I'm really eager for this boss fight, it's the next team fight, I always loved the team fights...for some reason. As I said before, this might be the last update for a while...probably a month XD So savor it...SAVOR IT! XD But seriously, I'll try and make a faster update this time.**


	17. Illusionary Forest: Act II

**NOTE: You are _not_ dreaming/have slipped into a coma; I actually HAVE updated OC Heroes. =3 Enjoy. I apologize for OOC-ness of the characters...**

Chapter 17: Illusionary Forest: Act II

Light came to a screeching halt as the warp ring released them in another part of the same forest. Raket and Sonia checked back for the tiger that had been following them, thankfully, that was no longer the situation.

"Who wants to bet Eggman's going to show up soon?" Raket asked, looking around; this part of the forest looked much nicer, light streamed through the tops of the trees, making rainbows on the top of any body of water it happens to hit.

"This place actually looks nice." Sonia noted with a smile. The hedgehog girl directed Raket and Light's attention to a pair of giant, butterfly wings decorated with bight yellows and reds intertwining around one another to make a unique pattern on the thing, "Look at the size of that butterfly!"

"What kind of butterfly is that?" Raket asked, raising an eyebrow. The butterfly, apparently hearing the conversation, turned around, revealing long, sharp fang protruding from it's mouth and eight red eyes.

"It's a butterfly from Hell!" Light shrieked leading his team in an immediate retreat from the giant bug. The butterfly's wings sharpened as they spread, giving chase to the three.

"No, it's a robot." Sonia said, gesturing to the bug.

"It's the robot butterfly from Hell!" Raket retorted grabbing the collar of Light's shirt and yanking him into a hidden tunnel they had almost passed. Sonia followed after them, leaving the butterfly to ponder furiously a way to chase after its meal.

Inside the tunnel, there was a surprising amount of light; illuminated by red spheres that dotted the walls and ceiling with a dim glow from each. Eggman's robots also sat inside, most of them sleeping and the rest not paying attention.

"Wow, what great soldiers." Sonia remarked sarcastically, walking quietly past the sleeping guards, finding a wall in her path and opting to destroy the guards that were actually awake but not doing their job. The insect blocking the front exit seemed to have retreated to its resting spot, making it only a little lighter than it had before been. The robots whom had been sleeping were suddenly alerted by the change of light, only to be destroyed a second later by quick attacks from both Light and Raket. "This isn't gonna help us at all." Sonia said, turning back toward the entrance, "Since that…robot is gone, we can probably get back the way we came." Light was the first to the entrance, and also the first to discover the hellfly was lying in wait for them. It quickly snatched the yellow fox's pant leg, being too slow to catch him at the torso. The fox yelled and kicked at the beast furiously with his free leg while his hedgehog teammates held him by the arms to keep him from being dragged off for hellfly food.

"Kill it! Kill it!" Raket shouted, pulling on Light's left arm. Complying with the idea, Light kicked the air like he was running on solid ground, happily getting the fast-moving effect he had been hoping for. It only took a few minutes, an eye loss here, broken fangs there, and finally the whole thing snapped; Its head did a complete three-sixty spin on its neck and sprung out of place, unfortunately, yet comically, hitting Sonia in the stomach. The rest of the body went into spasms; the wings fluttering wildly, sending the body loop-the-looping in place, twisting and turning violently, the bug's legs clawing the air like it would drown if it stopped. It at last came to a stop when smoke suddenly spouted from the head hole and dropped to the ground, motionless.

"…That was cool." Light commented.

"Cosmo!" Two voices rang simultaneously from approaching Seedrians. One was rainbow, the other orange. The little orange one stopped first, looking into the head of the beast. "Cosmo, wake up!" she said, reaching her hand inside. The rainbow Seedrian had already scanned around; putting together a conclusion by the dangerous look she was giving Team Raket. "What did you do to Cosmo?" She demanded.

**OoOoO**

The three guardians were met once again by the same screams, though their source was still unknown. The Guardian of Spirit's ears perked as they had before, scanning around for the source. "That scream again…" she muttered.

Anash waved a hand as if to shoo the matter out of Acio's thoughts. "Forget about it. We've got other things to do." He said. His hedgehog teammate nodded in agreement, though their idea of 'other things' differed. The screech came again, only this time closer. The black Echidna turned his attention toward it, suddenly aware of just how close more unneeded company was. "Or, the screaming _could_ be important." He added to his last statement.

Cloud tensed, a sudden chill had swept over her and her companions. Possibly a bad omen? The loud screech came again, this time showing a body with the voice; a solid-looking specter seemed to fly into the presence to the three with a flourish of its abilities; cloaked in a tattered, ragged cloak, looking to be dark blue when it was new, but had long since faded from that hue. A hood hid the things face from view, showing only black where a face and features should have been.

Cloud frowned, unsure whether she was mystified or annoyed by the creature. "So then this is what was-" She covered her ears suddenly as another loud shriek ripped from the being in front of them with the other two guardians following suit.

"Yeah, I think you just got your answer." Anash growled quietly, the high-pitched scream still ringing. The banshee swept downward and toward the group, letting loose another scream, sounding more like a battle cry. Weapons suddenly came out, standing ready to strike at the perfect time with a steady nerve. The ghost skillfully twirled and twisted away from the blows, flying through Cloud the moment her guard dropped. A hand suddenly rose to her heart; her eyes wide, the Guardian of Light felt no heart beat. No _thump, thump_. Nothing. '_But I'm still breathing.'_ she noted, watching almost in dizzying slow motion as their ghostly attacker circled in the air, coming back for another shot at her companions. The being screeched again and shot at the remaining two; the male of the team got the honor of first hit once the ghost, only for a moment, seemed to go transparent. It screamed, this time in pain, and retreated away a few feet to tend recover its senses.

Cloud felt her heart beat come back, the dizziness faded and everything went at a normal speed for her. "Acio, Shoot it! Quick!" she instructed, catching the ghosts turn to transparent. After only a moment's hesitation, the black cat fired an arrow, hitting the poltergeist smack in the heart. This time in made no noise; it only dropped, dead as it should have been from the beginning.

"What was that?" Acio breathed, sensing a tension in the air.

"Hoo!" A loud, booming voice echoed.

"No, 'what'; not 'who'." Acio said, almost completely unaware that the voice didn't belong to her teammates; her ears perked when the thought hit her.

"_**Hoo!**_" came the sound again, this time emerging from the trees was a great horned owl, at least 20 times the size of a normal owl, clutching a familiar fuchsia chameleon in it's claw. An equally familiar vixen and tiger crashed through after it.

"Why does all the stupid stuff have ta happen' ta me!?" she shouted, pounding on the owl's talon.

Cloud could hear Anash laughing, whatever humor he found in it, but ignored him; those three _must_ know where Sonic was. Cloud ran after the trio, her confused team chasing.

**OoOoO**

Team Earthia looked around quickly; not much had changed from their last location; this place was much happier looking, though…and nothing was chasing them.

"Okay, now what?" Laya asked, casting a glance toward a bush that had suddenly rustled.

"Who's there?" Sumowa demanded with a growl, taking a step in front of her two sisters toward the bush. The bush reflected two red eyes flowing behind it, a sudden blur of blue flying from behind it and blowing easily past Sumowa, snatching up Cosmo as it passed.

Cosmo's eyes suddenly widened, processing the sudden kidnapping she let out a yelp to alert her sisters.

Laya covered her face with her arms as the figure blew by, kicking up dirt and wind. "Cosmo!" the little orange seedrian shouted, giving an immediate chase after her sister with the oldest one following after her. The sister-capturing blur swerved easily around trees or through them if it could distinguish them between illusion and real, all the while the other two girls, nimble even in a confusing forest, slowly catching up. The captor made a sudden sharp turn, disappearing into what appeared to be a solid wall.

Sumowa put her hand on it once the two caught up; it was solid, alright. "How did he…?" she asked, sliding her hand across the rough rock hoping to find the trick spot.

Her littlest sister mimicked this. "This is all solid, I don't get it." Laya said, pounding on the rock; just in case. "He can't just go through solid rock…Or Cosmo can't, anyway."

Sumowa said something under her breath, unaware of the creature coming up behind them.

A low growl sent a sudden cold shiver down both spines. In a simultaneous motion, the girls looked back; seeing a lion crouched low to the ground in some grass behind them. The rainbow seedrian breathed sharply, "Don't move." She instructed.

"Yeah, so it can eat us." Laya shot back, dripping with sarcasm.

"It won't attack if-" Sumowa got cut off by her sister suddenly dodging away from the rock wall almost immediately after the lion sprung from its place at them. The oldest girl followed quickly.

"Won't attack, huh?" Laya shouted over her shoulder.

"Just run!" Sumowa shot back in annoyance. The lion followed swiftly, practically breathing down the girls' necks. The beast roared loudly, and kicked off with its hind legs, only to be suddenly knocked back by the same swift blur of blue that had stolen their sister from them. It then shot off again, leaving behind it a strange looking butterfly machine that flew off in the same direction.

"Sumowa, I've got a feeling…"

"That Cosmo's in there?" the seedrian finished, looking at Laya. The orange girl nodded, starting in a jog after the butterfly. After a few minutes of chasing after the robot that held their sister, they lost track of it. Turning their jog into a run after a loud scream broke the air and the sound of large wings fluttering followed.

"Cosmo!" their voices rang simultaneously as they approached the headless robot. Laya was the first to stop, looking into the head hole of the beast and indeed finding her sister inside. Her eyes were closed…then again; the robot looked like it had taken a serious amount of damage.

"Cosmo, wake up!" she said, reaching her hand inside. Sumowa looked around, spotting a silver hedgehog, an eggplant colored female hedgehog and a dazzlingly yellow fox. She put together the only conclusion she could come up with; these three, whoever they were, had done that to Cosmo...maybe they had something to do with the kidnapping blur too?

"What did you do to Cosmo?" She demanded in an angry tone.

**OoOoO**

The three detectives stopped once they exited the warp ring, gasping for breath from their previous workout for their lives.

"Let's agree ta never do that _ever_ again." Kaity panted, relieved to be somewhere without crazy, multiplying, colorful wolves.

"Agreed." Snow and Waffle both nodded.

"Where are we now?" Snow asked, looking around at the much kinder surroundings.

"Probably still those crazy woods." Waffle answered, sweeping a glance around. "Only a different part…like at Emerald coast, and that mine, and-"

"We get it, Waffle." Kaity said, "Let's just get outta here, Eggman's gotta be around close by. He always is at this point." The two mammals nodded and followed quickly after their smallest member.

The forest around them was silent, shining in the light of casting shadows around them. "This place is sort of creepy." Waffle said off-handedly, gazing at the atmosphere, "Though it's nicer looking than the last place."

Snow nodded in agreement. "It is, but I'd rather get out of her quick instead of hang around any longer."

All three suddenly had their attention turned as a loud "Hoo!" echoed around them; looking at a Great Horned owl sitting calmly on a branch in the dark of a shadow. The only problem with it was that is was, by far, much bigger than a normal owl.

Kaity waved a hand at it; "Just ignore it, we got more important things ta do." She said matter-of-factly.

"Hoo!" The owl cried again, sounding rather annoyed that the chameleon choose to ignore it.

"Shut up, ya stupid bird." Kaity called to it, only irking it more.

"Hey, uh…Kaity? I think it's getting mad." Waffle said, her ears lowering considerably as she followed her friend.

"I don't care, what's it gonna do? 'hoo' me ta death?" the chameleon laughed. The laugh was cut short as a claw suddenly snatched up the chameleon and took off into the trees.

"Hoo!" The owl cried once again, doding around anything solid in the forest while its captive pounded away on it's claw.

"Let her go!" Snow shouted, drawing her sword for an attack and giving chase to the creature with Waffle running one a second behind.

_**"Hoo!"**_ the owl growled, crashing through the trees with it catch. Snow and Waffle came crashing through the bushes after it, passing by three Mobians they had unknowingly had many encounters with over the course of their adventure.

"Why does all the stupid stuff have ta happen' ta me!?" Kaity shouted. She could hear someone below laughing; maybe a male voice? When she looked down at her team scrambling after her, she caught sight of another group of three, following dangerously close to her friends; the blue hedgehog in the group having a dangerous look in her eye.

**I'll try and get the next chapter up soon, since I have another motive to finish the story...but I'm probably gonna shorten it too...I already explained it in the DA version, so I'll make this one brief; I sort of got depressed writting Team Gracious' part since I haven't heard from either team member in a while and this is causing me quite a bit of writer's Block****...so I'll probably just go on with the next stage and then jump right into the final boss battle to end it all quick...**


	18. Team vs Team 2

**Wow, two updates in two days, I must be getting out of my Writer's Block =3 enjoy...it might be the only one for a long time...given what's been happening every other time I update this story...**

Chapter 18: Team vs. Team 2

_Team Raket vs. Team Earthia_

"We didn't do anything." Sonia protested to Sumowa.

"Well, technically, we i_did_/i blow the thing's head off." Light pointed out.

Sonia ignored Light's comment. "But we didn't know someone was in there…besides, it attacked us first."

Laya pulled Cosmo out of the machine and shook her lightly, only hearing the sounds of the voices, not the words. "Hey Cosmo, are you alright?" she asked. The green Seedrian opened her eyes, feeling the vertigo from her machine's craze and cash. "You okay?" Laya asked again.

"Yes…I'm fine…Just a little hurt. I-I don't know what came over me." She said quietly, recalling instantly how intent she had been on attacking the three she saw Sumowa fighting with…well, Sonia, anyway. "Sumowa, please, it wasn't there fault; they had every right to attack me." She reasoned with her sister, dizzily getting to her feet with Laya helping.

"Yeah." Light nodded in agreement. The light colored fox got a punch from both hedgehogs. "What?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders.

"They didn't _have_ to attack you." Sumowa countered, "They could've known you were in there…and whatever that blur was that took you…"

"Sumowa, that was-" Cosmo started, getting interrupted by Sonia.

"We don't know anything about a blur." She protested with her arms crosses over her chest. "And we didn't know your sister was in there, right Raket?" The eggplant colored hedgehog looked at the hedgehog standing off to the side, avoiding the conflict.

"I'd rather not get involved…" He said with slight embarrassment. He looked over at Cosmo, "Is she okay?" He took a step toward Cosmo, and immediately jumped back as twin lines of fire shot out of the smallest Seedrian's hands directed at him.

"Hey!" Sonia growled, running at Laya. She was immediately whipped away by a vine provided by the rainbow seerian. The hedgehog girl crashed into a tree, she groaned in pain but ran in for her next attack. She stopped abruptly as the ground they stood on suddenly broke away from the rest, rushing the six into the air for their official battle.

Sonia touched her keyboard medallion, turning it into a rifle. She fired laser bullets at the seedrians whom had attacked her, both retaliating at the same time.

"Sonia!" Raket yelled, focusing on the vines and fire heading toward his teammate, stopping both dead in their tracks.

Sonia, after registering what had happened, cast a grateful smile toward Raket. "Thanks Raket." That being said, she rushed the two Seedrains at another angle. Cosmo intercepted, knocking Sonia to the ground.

"Please," She said in a pleading tone, "We can't fight each other, that blur that took me, it was-" said blur shot onto the battle field and scooped up the only inactive fighter; Light.

"Hey! What the hell!?" He yelled, swiping at the blur that held him by the collar of his shirt as he was pulled from the field and out of sight.

"Light!" Raket and Sonia shouted in unison, running in the direction the blur had taken their friend, stopping only once they hit the edge of the battlefield.

Laya jump-kicked Sonia, knocking her off the edge before she could react. The hedgehog yelled and clawed the air.

"Sonia!" Raket gasped, reaching for Sonia's hand. She was out of reach by then, already going through the safety net of the fight; a warp ring. The silver hedgehog growled quietly, looking back at the seedrians, regrouped a ways away. Cosmo was still trying for peace.

"Listen to me! That blur is some kind of metal Sonic!" She got out at last.

For that moment, no one listened; Raket was all by himself as far as her knew, and Sumowa and Laya were still upset about what they had found had happened. The three charged full force, going off into a volley or kicks, punches, and whatever attacks they possessed.

It wasn't long after that a loud buzzing filled the air; belonging to what looked like an improved buzz-bomber, a much bigger buzz-bomber.

"We really don't need this right now!" Laya hissed, tossing a fire ball at it.

"Laya, no! That's the fox that was taken!" Cosmo protested too late. The bug, apparently containing Light, cast a glance toward Laya as it was hit, an irritated buzz came from the machine, bowling into the little seedrian and throwing her over the edge.

The blur came again, this time everyone heard it coming. Three heads looked up toward it, never once stopping to be seen, dove down toward Laya. Cosmo cried out and leapt off the edge to save her sister. The green seedrian successfully met the blur half way to Laya, jerking it off course and down. The blur, acclaimed a 'metal sonic' by the green plant girl, jerked hard and spun Cosmo off, flinging her down after her sister, both going safely through a waiting warp ring.

Back on the battleground, Raket and Sumowa went blow for blow with vines and telekinetic power or just close-combat. One vine was shot off course, sending it and all its force through the giant buzz-bomber hovering over the battle, seeking an ideal target. The bug instantly dropped to the ground, making any final buzzes and firing a few final shots at Raket and Sumowa before it died out.

Everything Cosmo had said suddenly struck Raket as the rainbow Seedrian sent vines at the machine, raking it toward the edge of the arena. "Wait!" He cried out, using his telepathy to throw Sumowa away and loose her hold on the machine. The silver hedgehog rushed to the machine easily kicking the head out of place and peeping inside; finding his stolen friend lying inside. "Light?" he said quietly, reaching in to pull out his friend. The machine gave one final sputter as it's controller was pulled out, jerking violently into a half-moon shape, unknowingly whacking the final seedrian off and over the edge of their battlefield and into a warp ring to join her sisters.

Raket, oblivious to this happening, shook Light. He didn't look too hurt, but he could've gotten electrocuted when that vine went through the machine he was in. "Hey, Light. Wake up." He said.

"But I'm tired." Light moaned, staying in his positing, "Gimme five more minutes."

**OoOoO**

_Team Guardian vs. Team Gracious_

Snow the white tiger, unaware of Cloud, Acio and Anash following them, switched her handling on Dragon Fang and launched it like a javelin at the owl escaping with her teammate. The owl screeched in pain at the sudden stab.

"Nice shot." Waffle complemented, racing forward to catch the chameleon now coming down from the sky. The vixen, unfortunately, missed. Kaity landed on her back, grunting in pain.

"Great catch." Kaity remarked sarcastically, sitting up painfully.

"Sorry." Waffle said with a frown. The she-fox glanced down, spotting a familiar key on the ground. "Hey, these usually take us to emeralds." She murmured more to herself than out loud. Cloud broke in before anything else could be said, seizing the key in her grasp as well.

"Where are they?" she demanded harshly. Never getting her answer as the six suddenly disappear in a flash of light.

_Begin Special Stage: Emerald Challenge_

Both teams appeared in the tubular path they had to take to catch their prize. The purple emerald zoomed by, starting a race to catch the emerald between the two groups. Kaity dashed ahead with Waffle and Snow collecting rainbow colored spheres to boost their speed. Cloud followed almost at a similar speed without the chips, feeling the energy boost at once after running through a field of blue spheres.

Both the chameleon and hedgehog are just out of reach of the powerful jewel, daring a glance at the other and racing forward.

Anash smirked slightly at Snow, noting the sword she also carried. With a swift hand; Emparo was unsheathed and sliced a shallow cut in the tiger. She yelped, taking out her own weapon for retaliation. Both stopped immediately to settle their fight, via swords. Snow jabbed Dragon Fang into Anash's side, causing an unexpected yelp from the black echidna. Acio immediately stopped, turning to stop Snow from causing the male any farther harm. Waffle stopped as well, already feeling the unfair fight coming. The vixen jumped on the cat, forcing her to the ground.

The emerald was taunting them with how close it was, so close either one could jump to catch it, but the other girl stood as an obstacle. Getting increasingly irritated with the race, and both gradually loosing speed, Cloud stealthily hid a neon ring from Kaity's view; waiting until the chameleon focused on the emerald to release it. Kaity yelped in surprise as the weapon slid across her front, luckily leaving only a shallow gash, and that Cloud had sprung from the ground and snatched the emerald from the air with perfect grace.

_End Special Stage: Emerald Challenge_

The group was taken, instead of their original location, to a battlefield in the sky; for that first moment, every heart skipped a beat as the ground phased out from under them to reveal clouds, demonstrating just how high up they were. Though the platform was gone, the Mobians didn't fall; like they were standing on air.

The crazy zone they had been in before reminded the two teams that they were bound to run into something out of the norm during their fight, just as they had on the way to it.

"Enough games," Cloud said seriously, holding her prize tightly, "Where are they?" she demanded.

The three of Team Gracious looked curiously at each other, not understand whatever was making the hedgehog girl so irritated.

Waffle's ears suddenly perked, making Cloud tense suddenly, followed by her teammates. The tan vixen leaned to whisper to her team; "I think she's talking about the Chaos Emeralds."

"In that case…" Kaity started quietly, raising her voice for the three across the field to hear her, "No way, we got 'em fair and square. We're not just gonna give 'im ta ya."

Cloud growled dangerously at the trio. "Fine. I'll take them by force, then." The blue hedgehog charged forward, surprising the vixen she happened to tackle to the ground. Anash was more than happy to join the battle, his eyes already taking on a darker shade of red. The black echidna was met half way by Kaity, starting a knock-down-drag-out fist fight. Leaving the two felines to battle.

Waffle, being the stronger one between the two, easily kicked Cloud off, getting back to her feet and charging quickly, only to miss and instead ram into Snow and Acio, causing more conflict to the battle. Cloud quickly joined Anash in his successful attempt to herd his opponent toward the edge of the battle field. The hedgehog pushed past Anash and grabbed the chameleon by the collar, going so far as to dangle her off the edge of the platform. "Now tell me where Sonic is." She growled. Anash smirked at the tone of the demand and the demand itself, so _that's_ what had Cloud so flustered.

The chameleon's face suddenly took on a confused look, "What's Sonic have ta do with anythin'?" she asked. "Aren't ya after the-"

A loud screech swallowed the last words, causing Cloud to unintentionally release Kaity, leaving her at the mercy of gravity before a power ring arrived to save her.

"Ugh, it's that thing again." Acio groaned, rubbing her ears gingerly, all three in the battle having the most sensitive hearing, no one thought of trying to attack at the moment. The same creature Team Guardian had met with before flew across the battle field, causing an instant reaction from everyone to jump to the closest side. The wound Anash had left on it before silenced any doubt it had been the same ghost.

"Don't let it touch you." Cloud warned, throwing a neon ring at it. The banshee dodged easily and swooped around for its next attack, landing a perfect hit through Snow and Acio and pushing both off the edge from its speed. Two more warp rings came to their aid.

"Oh great, two on one." Waffle growled crossly, balling her hands into fists. The spirit came again, letting out another wail as it came after the remaining three. The vixen scanned around quickly, finding nothing immediately usable, took a fighting stance.

"I got it." Anash said with a confident smirk, drawing Emparo for its next fight with the being. The ghost swung close by again, dancing away from Anash's sword swing, it laughed at Anash's irritation. "What? Too scared to fight me?" The black echidna called tauntingly.

"Anash…" Cloud started in a warning tone, but she was ignored. The poltergeist flew at the group once again, this time heading toward Waffle. The vixen stood her ground and swung as it came at her, feeling no effects from the punch, but a sudden lack of heart beat. Waffle's breathing quickened suddenly, no heartbeat…but she was still alive and breathing…

Cloud didn't waste another minute releasing her own shot at the thing, successfully striking it. The thing careened in place in the sky and shot off to heal once again. Just as the hedig turned to question the remaining member of Team Gracious, she found, to her horror, that Anash had gone ahead and given Waffle a one way ticket toward a warp ring.

**Now onto the final stage!...yeah, I'm cutting it short =w=...Sorry to the people who actually _liked_ this story. Winners this round are Team Raket and Team Guardian! =D**


	19. Mixedup Mansion: Act I

**This took so much longer than I wanted it to TT_TT I wanted these chapters done before my DeviantART friend, RaketTH, got back, but obviously that didn't work...I mean, I'm happy he's back, but I wanted to get this done for him D= ...Anyway, this is a second idea I had, because the first idea I had suddenly struck me as stupid so I erased what I had and started over...thus getting this. That in mind, the teams have been mixed up for this zone, so here's where the charaters are now:**

**Team 1: Raket, Cloud, Snow**

**Team 2: Kaity, Cosmo, Anash**

**Team 3: Laya, Acio, Sonia**

**Team 4: Light, Waffle, Sumowa**

Chapter 19: Mixed-up Mansion: Act I

Raket dropped out of the warp ring, looking around for his teammates, who still hadn't arrived after the ring closed and disappeared. "Sonia? Light?" he called out, thinking maybe the other two had gotten there before him and went ahead so the hedgehog did the same. He looked around the new zone, the halls were long and wide, but the decoration gave the impression of puzzle pieces, red, blue, and yellow in color, connected together to make the most confusing puzzle the silver hedgehog had ever seen. The silver hedgehog jumped back suddenly; two more warp rings had appeared. "They must've gotten into different warp rings." Racket muttered to himself, "Wonder how that happened." The silver hedgehog quickly discovered his question may be left unanswered as the two rings dropped out a blue hedgehog girl and a white tigress. The hedgehog girl jumped on her guard almost immeditally after she landed, fixing Raket with a hard look. "...Um...hi?" The silver hedgehog tried, making a small waving motion with his hand.

"Who are you?" The hedgehog girl asked, staying tense.

"Raket. You?"

"Cloud. Cloud the Hedgehog."

"Nice to meet you." Raket looked at the Tiger, "And you're...Snow, I think. Right?"

Snow's expressions gave away her surprise; "That's right...You were with that crazy hedgehog girl, weren't you?"

"Sonia's not crazy." Raket said firmly, crossing his arms."Anyway, something happened and we're all stuck together."

Cloud started walking down the hall, followed by the other two new team members, "For the time being."

"So, I guess if we want to get through, we might as well-" Snow started, stopping suddenly when a panel of the wall opened, revealing to be actually a door and allowed a group of Egg-bots through, armed with guns. The three mammals simultaniously scowled at the enemy, Cloud drawing Dragon Fang and the two hedgehogs taking a tense stance.

"There don't look to be too many. This should be easy." Raket said, charging forward and spindashing through the robots; metal limbs and torsoes flew into the air, landing briefly after. The silver hedgehog smiled slightly, "Easy. I think this is the way we need to go." he explained, stepping aside and letting the two girls pass by.

Cloud's ears suddenly flicked up and put a hand out to stop the others. "I don't think it was as easy as you thought, Raket." she said, turning to look back. The blue hedgehog watched the robots assumble themselves again, she noted a few faults with some; one had two weapons, one had no weapons, one had a foot where it's arm should be, and other such mistakes.

"Creepy..." Snow said quietly. "Should we try destroying them again?" She asked.

"No. dismembering them isn't going to be enough."

"We have to shut them down." Raket added, pounding his fist into his open hand. Both his hands glowed with a soft blue light, the same color appearing around an Egg-bot before the robot ripped apart once again, this time the torso ripping in half down its center.

Snow grinned, "Nice." the tigress bounded forward just as another robot was ripped apart in a similar fashion, slashing a free-standing robot in half and once again for fourths.

"A bit overboard, Snow." Cloud said, flipping over the tiger girl as she turned to face Cloud, landing a perfect hit on an approaching Egg-bot with a Neon Ring. The trio paused after another short moment and looked around, the enemy was destroyed. "Now that that's done with," Cloud said calmly, gesturing toward the way they had been walking, "I believe we have a problem to solve."

"Um...right." Raket nodded, following after Cloud and Snow for the second time. The three got through without a problem this time, the hall was long and filled with twists, turns that brought them around to where they started, but they eventually found themselves outside a dead end.

"Great. Now what?" Snow huffed, looking around.

Cloud scanned the dead end hall and found nothing. "I don't know." She admitted finally, pressing her back against the wall. Just as this was done, a sound like gears turning came from inside the walls. "What the-?" Cloud started, the words catching in her throat as the floor suddenly slid away from under the trio, sending them down.

**OoOoO**

Cosmo landed gracefully in the new zone, but was startled to find the other two that had dropped out with her were very different people; one a fushia chameleon girl, and the other the black echdina from one of their fights, Anash, if she was recalling correctly. "Um, excuse me." She said meekly, catching both Mobian's attention. "Do either of you know what happened to my sisters?" She asked.

"Sisters?" The chameleon girl repeated, giving her a confused look.

"You mean the orange and rainbow Seedrians?" Anashed answered, "Why would either of us know that?" He demanded.

Cosmo suddenly felt her face heat in embarassment; she hadn't even thought of how the other two would be feeling. "I'm sorry," She apologized, "I just thought...maybe one of you knew what was happening..."

"Well, we don't." Anash answered, casting a sharp glances at Kaity. "Unless you do."

Kaity's expression suddenly turned to one of annoyance, "What makes ya think I know anythin' 'bout what happened? Last thing I remember is ya throwin' me off an edge." she growled.

"Oh...you two know each other?" Cosmo asked, feeling the tension between the two.

"Sorta." Kaity replied. "Name's Kaity, by the way."

"Cosmo. It's nice to meet you." she said, giving a sweet smile to the other girl.

"Whatever," Anash cut in, "We've sort of got a problem." The black echidna said, looking both ways of the hall they were dropped in.

"Well, we got mixed up from our friends, so I guess we get through this zone and we find our friends again." Cosmo said, "We should go down this way." She said, pointing behind them. "I have a good feeling about it." She explained before anyone could ask. Anash and Kaity shrugged and began walking, watching around for anything that would jump out at them.

The strange trio didn't have to wait long; at their first turn they found a hall filled with robots, most of which appeared to have flaws in their making; swapped body parts, too many or too little legs or arms, and other such deformities. "That's...probably not good." Kaity noted, glancing from one robot to the next.

Anash grinned, "Maybe for them." The black mammal drew his sword and sliced the closest Egg-bot clean in half. That was good enough reason for the other 'bots to attack, suddenly a rush of red metal charged at the group. Cosmo wasn't as quick to the fight as the other Mobians, the green Seedrian hung back and watched her new teammates tear easily through the enemy; severing robotic limbs or splitting them entirely.

"That was too easy." Kaity remarked with a smirk. The smirk faded suddenly when a robot she had ripped the head from suddenly rise and take the head from another downed robot. "Um..."

Anash quickly lost his confused look and scowled, "Not so easy, apparently." He watched several robots mimick the first, taking whatever that needed from robots that had been torn completely in half.

"It looks like they have to be destroyed completely before we can go any farther." Cosmo said, awe-struck by the robots rebuilding themselves.

"Not a problem." Anash countered with a snarl, slashing through the first re-built robot that got too close. The next robot got a fist-sized hole though its center.

Kaity quickly joined the battle, relying heavily on her kunai and ninjastars to destroy the Egg-bots. "Wonder how Eggman got 'is 'bots ta do that." she said as a kunai cut cleanly though one of the robots.

"Does it really matter?" Anash answered, taking down three deformed robots at once, "The guy has a few problems, anyway."

With that said, the remainder of the battle went by with only sounds of metal slicing and crashing to the ground.

"Now that that's done," Cosmo said, carefully making her way though the carpet of scrap metal and meeting her temporary team on the other side, "We should find our friends." She said. The chameleon and echidna nodded and started on their way once again, "Do you think they could re-build themselves if they were cut in half?" The green Seerian asked.

"Nah, once the wirin's killed, they aren't comin' back." Kaity explained, getting a nod from Anash.

The echidna stopped suddenly, directing his gaze toward the wall, "Did you hear that?" He asked, "Someone's on the other side...I think it was Cloud."

**OoOoO**

Acio landed hard, feeling as confused as the orange seedrian and eggplant-colored hedgehog, both of which she remembered from her past fights; Laya and Sonia.

Laya looked around at the puzzle-inspired room; About the length of a ballroom with a ceiling low enough for any of the girls to jump and touch, each wall was decorated with designs of yellow, red and blue puzzle pieces. The tiled floor was made in a similar fashion, with the exception of what appeared to be pathways made specifically by one color, all leading to three different doors and spirialing together in the center of the room. "Crazy place." She said casually, "Looks like we got mixed up too."

"Obviously." Sonia countered, looking around as well, "Must be something to do with the zone. I'm betting as soon as we get through we'll find our friends again."

"Then let's stop wasting time." Acio cut in, starting down the yellow path.

"Where are you going?" Sonia asked of the black cat girl.

"Down this path." Acio asnwered, turning around to answer.

"What makes you think that's the right one?" Laya asked, her head tilting to one side. Acio only shrugged. "Well, I'm going down this one." the seedrian said, pointing to the blue path.

"I guess I'll take the red one, then." Sonia said as each girl started down their own path.

Naturally, Acio passed through the doors of her path first, finding nothing but a wall and a red button on the floor. The black cat looked back, considering going back through one of the other doors. "Maybe if I..." the cat muttered to herself, stepping lightly on the button. The sound of stone scraping on stone made her look up and toward the door Sonia had chosen.

Sonia jumped slightly as the wall suddenly opened up to a hallway. "Hey! Look at this!" She called over her shoulder. "There's a hall here."

"Keep going down it," She heared Acio call, "See if there's a button or something in it."

"Um...alright..." Sonia answered, walking farther into the hall decorated similar to the first room, but with a blue tiled floor urging her forward. The hedge-girl walked the length of the hall way, coming to a wall of blue with a hand-shaped indent at its center. "Well, it's something." Sonia shrugged, putting her hand in the middle. A blue light scanned over her gloved hand and suddenly snapped shut over her hand, leaving a hole big enough for her wrist, causing the Mobian to gasp and attempt to pull her hand away. A moment later, a loud, hollow _click_ echoed down the hall. "What was that?" She called.

Laya took a step back as a door she had been heading toward swung open. "I think you did something in here." She called to Sonia. "I'm going to check it out." the orange seedrian peeked into the new room; nothing but red all around the girl. The room was nearly bare save for a slab of red marble in the center of the room with red blocks resting in a pattern on it. Laya approached the slab and examined the blocks; there were eight in total and four different sizes of block. "What am I supposed to do?" She asked out loud.

"For what?" Acio asked from her place.

"There's a bunch of blocks. I think I have to make a pattern or something."

"Maybe I can help." Acio stepped off the button and headed toward Laya's room, freezing immeditally as the room Sonia had gone into suddenly emmitted a loud stone-on-stone noise and a _thud_. Behind the wall, Sonia felt her hand release from the wall, slamming the doors to the room Laya was in as a reaction, throwing the youngest girl in darkness.

Laya quickly lit her hand on fire to look around. "What happened?" She called.

"I think that button had something to do with it." Acio called back, retreating back to the button and pressing down on it. Sonia's hall opened up again and the hedgehog girl, now understanding the system, put her hand back to the handprint and allowed it to clap shut once again. The doors to Laya's chosen room clicked open once again. "Looks like we can't leave." The cat said. "Try somekind of puzzle pattern or something." She called to the seedrian.

"Or..." Laya smirked, grabbing the blocks and placing in random places on the slab and stood back, "maybe it just needs to be random." she finished with a grin. All three girls heard something from their starting room creak open. Sonia felt her hand once again release from the wall and she started back quickly to the center room, joined by Acio and Laya not long after.

"What was that?" Sonia asked, looking around the room for any change. What she found was a hidden door opened and Egg-bots standing armed and ready for the trio of girls.

"Oh, great." Acio growled at the advancing robots, "We just opened a trap." The three girls backed to the center of the room, readying for a battle, surprisingly feeling themselves sucked up and into the ceiling of the room.

**OoOoO**

Waffle jumped on her guard as a stunningly yellow fox, whom she recgonized as Light, and a rainbow seedrian landed in the same room with her instead of the two she was expecting.

Sumowa looked at the two foxes, feeling as cofused as she was sure the others were. "This is...kind of strange." She said, finally. "Something must have happened when we went through the warp ring."

"Like what?" Light asked, looking around the room. Only the size of a bedroom, the walls were decorated with the same red, blue and yellow puzzle shapes as the rest of the place, the floor was covered with a white carpet with a line of puzzle pieces leading to the rooms entrance and on the other side of the room, one lone closet door. "And I'm guessing we go out there." He pointed to the entrance.

"Well, duh." Waffle answered sarcastically, rolling her eyes. The tan vixen trotted toward the door and pulled. The door didn't budge. She pulled and got the same thing.

"That's odd." Sumowa said, walking over and trying herself, getting the same reaction from the door. "Maybe it's stuck."

"Here, let me try." Light said, grabbing the knob and pulling, but still the door didn't budge. "Maybe we have to pull."

Waffle grabbed the knob over Light's hand, "Let me try again."

"Maybe it's just a heavy door." Sumowa put in, grabbing the knob as well, leaning her weight against the door with the other two Mobians. The door swung open, toppling the trio into a pile on the ground in a hallway. "See? Just a heavy door." Sumowa nodded, getting up from the pile.

"Didn't feel that heavy." Light answered, standing up himself and pulling Waffle to her feet as well. "Anyway, let's keep going." The two girls nodded and headed down the hall they had dropped into. It didn't take long for the three to come to a new door; this one colored with red and blue, and not much farther down the hall, one painted with yellow and blue.

"Weird doors..." Waffle muttered, going down the hall to examine the yellow and blue door. "Which one should we try?"

"Let's try this one." Sumowa said, grabbing the knob of the red and blue door.

Light pushed on the door as well, "In case this one's heavy again." He explained after Sumowa shot him a questioning glance. The door opened easily, leading the two into a pure red room, with a blue button in the middle of the room.

"Wow...That's a _really_ red room." Light said, sounding a bit surprised.

Sumowa walked in and looked at the button, after a moment of hesitation, pressed down on it with her foot.

Back in the hall, Waffle jumped as the door in front of her suddenly swung open. "Hey, guys! The door opened!" Waffle called, walking cautiously into the room and looking around, her gaze stopped on a batallion of Egg-bots waiting on the other side of the door. "Uh oh..." she breathed. "You guys might want to come over here." she said, putting up her fists to fight.

"What?" Sumowa called back, stepping off the button. Both the seedrian and foxes jumped when both doors suddenly slammed shut.

Light growls and rattled the door knob, "It's locked. I think you have the stay on the button." Ha said, watching Sumowa as she stepped on the button again, swinging open both doors.

"There has to be a way to keep them both open." Sumowa said from her place. "See if you can find it, I'll wait here until then."

Light nodded and headed down the hall to Waffle's room, taking a reflexive step back at the troops waiting.

"Don't worry, they haven't moved an inch since I got here." Waffle reassured in a bored tone, "I don't think they're on."

"...Alright, that makes searching a lot easier." Light answered, walking along the wall.

"Searching for what?" Waffle asked, following him.

"some kind of button or something." He replied, "check around."

Waffle nodded, "Sure thing." The tan vixen searched the room while Light checked the walls, going inbetween the idling army for any kind of button. Waffle stopped in the middle of the army, spotting a small button on the floor in front of an Egg-bot. "I think I found it." Waffle called to the other fox, who quickly made his way over to see.

"Yep, I think that's it." He nodded, pressing down on the button. "Sumowa, try coming in now." he called. The rainbow seerian appeared in the doorway not long after. "Alright!" Light grinned, "What's next?" His answer came quickly as the Egg-bot in front of the two foxes twitched with movement and fixed both mammals in it's gaze, followed by the army surrounding the two foxes. "Aw damn..." Light grimaced.

**I just got a great idea for the zone boss =D Anyway, hope you liked the chapter...it's been so long since I updated this story...**


	20. Mixedup Mansion: Act II

**I'm happy now =3 Okay, so in this chapter I combined two teams to save time, though I made each part longer soooo...yeah. Be prepared X3 Once again, the new, mixed-up teams are:**

**Team 1: Raket, Cloud, Snow**

**Team 2: Kaity, Cosmo, Anash**

**Team 3: Laya, Acio, Sonia**

**Team 4: Light, Waffle, Sumowa**

Chapter 20: Mixed-up Mansion: Act II

Raket, Cloud and Snow fell down in darkness for no more than a minute before the first Mobian, Cloud, crashed through their landing spot and landed with a hard _thump_ on the floor of a lit room, followed closely by the other two Mobians.

The blue hedgehog girl was the first to look around the room and make an interesting discovery. "We were just in this room." She told her new team and pointed up. "Only the floor's up there this time."

Raket, looking startled as he recognized the floor as the new ceiling, looked at a light fixture, standing straight up as if it were still hanging down. "That's...not normal. Not normal at all." The silver hedgehog said finally.

"So, how did we get on the ceiling if we fell down?" Snow asked, picking herself up off the ground and dusting off her skirt.

"It's probably an illusion or something," Raket suggested, "you know, like those fun houses."

Snow's ears perked suddenly, looking up as Acio, Sonia and Laya dropped past them and onto the floor below them. Snow looked at Raket, who seemed to be just as confused as he had been a moment ago. "I don't think it's an illusion."

Sonia stood up and brushed off her dress, "Well, that could have gone better." She commented.

"Hey, Sonia!" Raket called, watching the eggplant-colored hedgehog jump as his voice, she looked up, along with her new team.

"Raket! What are you doing up there?"

"Oh, just...hanging around." He answered with a smile. His smile widened when Sonia giggled at his joke.

"Any idea what's happening here, Acio?" Cloud asked her companion with crossed arms.

The black cat shook her head, "About as much as you." She answered. "Have you seen Anash?"

"Not since I got paired with these two." She gestured to Raket and Snow.

Laya cut into both conversations, "Why are you guys on the ceiling?" The three simultaneously shrugged. "Well, can you get down?"

"We haven't tried yet." Snow admitted. "...Not that we've thought of a way down." she added.

"Try walking down the walls." Sonia suggested, "Things have been pretty weird in the place for us, maybe it'll work."

"Worth a try." Cloud said, walking to the closest wall and putting a foot down then the other. The light guardian looked at Raket and Snow from her new angle. "Working so far." she said before walking down the wall and ending up on the original floor with the other three girls.

"This place is crazy." Raket said, shaking his head and mimicking Cloud's actions followed by Snow. As soon as the male stood on the same ground, Sonia threw her arms around the hedgehog in a hug.

"I was so worried something happened." Sonia told her teammate, "I'm glad you're alright." Raket's muzzle lit bright red.

"Ye-...Me too." Raket answered, casting a weak glare at a chuckling Laya.

"We should probably find a way out of here before we start celebrating." Acio cut in, getting an approving nod from Cloud.

"But the army is gone, so that's a bit better." Laya nodded. "We can try that door there." She pointed to a door to the far side of the room.

Snow was the first over to the door and tried to push it open, getting no effects. She rattled the door. Still nothing. "It's locked." She announced. "We need to find another way out or a key."

"Wait a second," Sonia said, finally releasing Raket from a hug, "Remember before? With all the puzzle stuff?" She turned to her mixed team, who nodded. "Maybe it's just like that."

"Except there's nothing here like that." Acio said, gesturing around the room, her tail flicking back and forth.

"Maybe we have to do something to the door." Laya said, going over to the door and running her hands over it.

"You mean like a secret panel or something?" Cloud asked, going over to help search.

The remaining of each team came over to search around the walls and the door as well. The six mobians felt along the walls and door, coming up with nothing after several minutes of searching. A couple started muttering about how hopeless the search was turning out until the six simultaneously reached to open the door. The door swung open easily, startling the six into backing up a few steps.

"See? Puzzle." Sonia nodded, stepping out into a hallway.

"Great. So where are we now?" Cloud asked, looking around the mirrored hallway.

"Right back where we started." Raket sighed, turning to the five girls. "I'm starting to think there's no way out of this place." he admitted. The hedgehog quickly noticed that the five were looking at something behind him; all with startled expressions. "...What?" He asked, turning around to see, letting out a startled yelp when his reflection sprung from the mirror and pinned him to the ground.

"Raket!" Sonia cried out, gasping sharply as her own reflection sprung on her.

The reflection, he noticed, had a color scheme reversed from the silver hedgehog's; instead of silver fur with a blue marking, he was blue with a silver marking, the whites of his eyes were brown, his pupils while and his iris black. He looked at the others, easily being over taken by their mirror selves, had the same thing; their color schemes were reversed in some way.

The mirror hedgehog grinned, getting Raket's attention again. "Hiya." The blue hedgehog easily lifted Raket to his feet.

"Who are you? What are you?" Snow snapped, fighting to free herself from her black with white stripes double.

"We're you." Mirror Cloud, a tan hedgehog with a cobalt muzzle, explained with a grin, pulling her counterpart's arm back tighter when she struggled. "Only...different." she added with a chuckle.

Cloud grimaced from the pull, "We were here before, why not show up then?" she demanded.

"Not the right time." Mirror Laya, a green seedrian with an orange flower in her hair explained. "It was too early to jump any of you."

"Too early?" Acio repeated quietly.

"Enough talking." Mirror Sonia, an orchid hedgehog with eggplant purple hair, snapped, shoving Sonia toward a mirror, "Let's just shove then through and get rid of them."

"I can live with that." Acio's mirror image grinned; Mirror Acio was a pink cat with a large black bow tied to her tail. She shoved Acio through a mirror and leapt in after her, followed by the other mirror mobians.

Laya was the last one to be shoved through, kicking and trying to fight back at her counterpart, who was quickly growing frustrated with her.

"Stupid kid." Mirror Laya snapped, giving the seedrian a hard shove to the mirror, "Just go!" Laya gasped as she touched the mirror; it soft and liquid-like but so cold. As the orange seedrian was pushed through, she suddenly felt as though the mirror was trying to smother her. Still soft, but now it was like putty, forming around her and letting her fall through. _'I'll suffocate in this!'_ She suddenly thought as she went down with her mirror self, who now mimicked her looks completely, save for her lack of curves; now the mirror Laya had sharp edges where curves should have been.

The seedrian landed with a light sound looking around at the others and their new place; Laya could only see Raket and Acio, but she wasn't sure if she was seeing the real them or a reflection once she looked at the room. Their new location was like a maze walled with mirrors, even the floor was one large mirror. There was no roof, but it showed an endless sky of blue and black meshing together and separating. Laya looked down at the floor and gasped; her mirror version was rising up from her reflection with an evil grin and a fighting look in her eyes and looking exactly identical to Laya in this world. The seedrian suddenly had no doubt the same was happening to the other five in her group.

**OoOoO**

"Ya mean that insane hedgehog girl?" Kaity asked, pressing her head to the wall and listening carefully. "'Cause I don't hear anythin'."

Cosmo mimicked the action, "Maybe it was just a trick or something. This place is a little strange." she said.

"I know Cloud's voice." Anash answered in a peeved tone, pushing against the wall, "I'm positive I heard Cloud's-" The black echidna was interrupted suddenly then the wall kicked up and dumped the trio over to the other side of the wall. "...Voice."

Cosmo pointed to a gang of egg-bots swarming over a trio of mobians with wide eyes, "Sumowa!" She cried out, getting the rainbow seedrian's attention from her fight. She waved to her sister, kicking an Egg-bot from her path to greet her younger sister.

"Hey, there's still a fight over here!" Waffle called out to the plant girl, looking surprised when she caught sight of Kaity standing there.

Kaity and Anash quickly jumped into the fight, slicing through the deformed robots just as they had before. "Why am I not surprised ya need savin' from somethin'?" the chameleon girl asked her tan friend, kicking away an egg-bot and slicing through it with a kunai.

"Not my fault this place is messed up." Waffle answered in an annoyed tone, knocking back a robot several steps.

"You have to cut them in half. Just knocking them for a loop isn't gonna do anything." Anash explained to Light, demonstrating by slicing easily through several of the Egg-bots at once.

"Alright...Can I use your sword, then?" Light asked, reaching for the sword.

Anash pulled it away, cutting another enemy like butter, "Not a chance, fox-boy."

"Damn." Light grumbled, snapping his fingers.

The mismatched robots fell easily to the six mobians, their remains slashed and littered across the battlefield. The six stayed on guard as they started toward the door Light, Waffle and Sumowa had used to enter the room, and found that the hall it exited to had changed at some point during their battle. Instead of the colorful hall they had solved the puzzle from; the hall was now wall-to-wall mirrors.

"This hall wasn't here before..." Sumowa said quietly.

"What the hell is up with this place?" Light questioned, looking up and down the hall as if he'd recognize something. "It's like a giant puzzle in here."

"Then let's not wait for it ta change again, if we wanna get outta here, we'd better go. Now." Kaity said, stepping out into the hall.

"Maybe one of the mirrors is a passage way." Cosmo suggested, "Like the wall that brought us all together."

Anash brushed by the green seedrian with a huff, "I don't think we have time to test _every _mirror in this hall." He said matter-of-factly, gesturing with a hand down both ways of the long hallway.

"It was just a suggestion." Sumowa growled, putting a hand on her disheartened sister's shoulder.

The black echidna merely shrugged it off, "Just saying..."

The group walked down the hall in silence, every now and then, glancing around at one another until Waffle finally broke the silence. "Soooo...What are you guys doing here?" She asked, "I mean, I know what Kaity's doing here, but what about the rest of you?"

"Sumowa and I are looking for our friends...along with our little sister, Laya." Cosmo explained.

"Kinda the same thing...except he isn't my friend." Anash said. He turned his head to look at the vixen and chameleon, "And you two?"

"We're lookin' for our friends too." Kaity replied, matching Anash's stare.

Light's ears flicked suspiciously, thinking back to the entry they had found in Eggman's journal. "They wouldn't happen to be friends with Sonic the Hedgehog, would they?" the yellow fox asked.

The other five nodded, "Yeah, how'd you know?" Sumowa asked, glancing at the fox with a sudden curious look.

"Because My friends, Raket and Sonia, and I found something after raiding one of Eggman's bases. It was some kind of journal entry about using Sonic and his friends to power his new machine of his...like a battery, it said."

"If he's using 'em ta power somethin', then it's gonna be a pretty strong. I mean, they _are_ the strongest mobians on Mobius."

"In their own fields." Anash attached.

"Either way, it'll be tough to fight something like that. We have to destroy it before Eggman has a chance to use it." Waffle said.

"That's what me, Raket and Sonia came to do." Light nodded. "But if it's really that strong, it'll probably need more than a magnet to fry it." That sent a small ripple of laughter through the group, though it only lasted a short time.

"...Does anyone else feel like we're being watched?" Cosmo asked, turning around to look behind her.

"It's probably all the mirrors," Anash dismissed with a wave of his hand, "It is a little weird, though." The other nodded in agreement and kept on their way, glancing every now and then behind them or at their reflections.

Light glanced at a mirror and cried out, backing into Kaity who fell into a mirror. "A warnin' would've been nice!" The chameleon girl snapped, pushing herself off the wall and shoving the yellow fox.

"It...It winked at me." Light said, pointing to his reflection, which was mimicking the action.

"What?" Anash scoffed, "You were just seeing things. Or you winked and didn't realize it."

"I'm _positive_ I didn't wink, and I'm _not_ seeing things." Light shot back. "It winked at me!"

"Anash's right, your reflection couldn't have done that unless you did." Cosmo agreed.

The green seedrian's reflection suddenly turned to face the rest of the group behind Cosmo's back with a wicked smile. It pounced through the mirror, becoming a red seedrian with green roses, and pinned Cosmo. "Wanna bet?" Mirror Cosmo cackled.

"What!" Anash's mirror self; a tan echidna with a black muzzle reached through and held the original in a tight hold.

The others fell just as easy, taken by surprised by the abruptness of the attack. "See? Told you." Light said, grimacing as his counterpart, a white fox with a yellow muzzle, pressed his foot harder against the fox's shoulder blades and pulled his arm back a little more.

"Let's just get 'em through; it'll be easier on our turf." Mirror Kaity, a tan chameleon with a fuchsia horn and yellow muzzle, grinned, shoving Kaity through without waiting for agreement. The other mirrors followed suit, letting their counterparts fall as they disappeared from sight. The six fell through the mirror, like falling through putty only it was cold. The fall seemed to take an eternity until they finally hit the ground. They all looked around; it was like a maze walled with mirrors, even the floor was one large mirror. There was no roof, but it showed an endless sky of blue and black meshing together and separating.

"See? This place is messed up." Waffle said, gesturing to their new location.

"Whatever." Anash rolled his eyes and stood up, letting out a sharp gasp as a black arm shot through the wall and slammed the echidna into it.

"Guess this is where we're fighting." Sumowa said as their mirror selves stepped from the walls or climbed up from the floors, mimicking the mobian's looks in every way, all except the mirror mobian's lack of curves, like pieces of glass put together to make a 3-D object. Without a moment's hesitation, the mirror mobians sprung at their counterparts.

**so, after this, they will be the Zone boss then the final and we're all done with this story :D School is starting tomorrow, So hopefully I can find time to update sooner than I have been.**


	21. Reflection Rumble

**Finally got this chapter done =D After this is the big boss battle, and if you don't know who the bad guy is at this point you _really_ should go back and read =w= anyway, yeah, hopefully I can get these last chapters done and up quick so I can start on _Sonic Schooled._**

**Team 1: Raket, Cloud, Snow**

**Team 2: Kaity, Cosmo, Anash**

**Team 3: Laya, Acio, Sonia**

**Team 4: Light, Waffle, Sumowa**

Chapter 21: Reflection Rumble

_Teams 1 and 3_

Mirror Laya's grin widened at the shocked seedrian's expression and sprang. Laya quickly threw an arm up to defend herself, sending a blast of fire at the mirror mobian, causing it to reel back in pain, a small crack forming where the fire had landed. "Little brat!" The mirror seedrian hisses darkly, sending back the same attack. Laya side stepped, feeling only the heat of the attack on her skin, but catching enough of a glimpse of the fire to see that it looked more like glass colored red, orange and yellow formed to look like 3-D fire. In the next moment, Laya's double sprung again, this time successfully pinning the girl to the cold, mirror ground and raised a clawed hand to strike.

Cloud's double had been relentless from the beginning, putting the hedgehog on constant guard and searching for an opening. The cobalt female had once tried to return an attack, getting a solid punch to the stomach and knocked off her feet for her troubles. "Yeah, not happening, girlie." The mirror had chuckled nastily, giving her opponent a kick to the ribs to keep her on the ground. Now Cloud was back on her feet and being forced to back up; she knew every attack the mirror hedge-girl was using, but it was all moving in such quick succession to one another, Cloud knew she was better off staying on defense. Her shoe suddenly bumped into someone else, she turned to look and immediately put a quick thought into action; Cloud spun gracefully away from her double, sending her into the orange seedrian's mirror self, causing both to cry out in shock and land in a pile.

"Idiot!" The both hissed simultaneously, pushing away from one another. Cloud pulled Laya to her feet, taking note of a small crack in her double and a bigger one in Laya's.

_'It would make sense they break easily...they're only mirrors...'_ she reasoned to herself, and nodded, "That'll be good to know." She said out loud, getting a strange glance from Laya. "Nevermind," She said, shaking her head, "Come on; we've got to find the others."

Laya nodded and followed Cloud through the maze of mirrors, "Right. This'll be easier if we know who's on our side."

Raket's double seemed to be giving him trouble as well, Raket could have easily performed any of the attacks, but defending against them proved to a bit harder. Though he had managed to land several strong punches on his enemy, also noticing the widening cracks when he struck. The silver hedgehog planted another hard punch at his mirror self's torso, widening the crack enough to see small bits falling from the crack. Mirror Raket gave a small shriek and leapt into the mirror on his right side. Raket smirked, "I showed him" He said confidently. A sharp yelp cut his self-congratulating short, he looked behind him, spotting Sonia lying face-down on the ground with her mirror self standing over her with a menacing grin on. "Sonia!" Raket cried out, easily throwing the mirror hedge-girl away telepathically.

Sonia's eyes opened, finding herself in Raket's arms. Her cheeks reddened and a shy smile formed over her face. "Um...Thanks, Raket."

Raket's cheeks seemed to redden a bit as well, "No problem...are you okay?"

Sonic nodded, "Yeah, I'm-Watch out!" She cut her own sentence short, swinging one foot up, effectively stunning Mirror Raket into backing off, both hands clasped over his stomach.

Raket looked back in surprise for a moment, the cracks from before had disappeared. He turned back just in time to see Mirror Sonia charging back at the duo, a large crack running down her middle and into her left shoulder and a fierce look on her face. The silver hedgehog was instantly on his feet and delivered the finishing blow to Mirror Sonia, shattering the Mirror Mobian with a quick kick to the chest. Raket quickly covered Sonia as the shards of glass flew out at the mobians.

The hedgehogs looked at the mess that was once Mirror Sonia, awe-struck.

"Watch it!" Laya's voice came sharply from behind them. A blast of fire threw Mirror Raket over their heads, causing a crack in his back and one running down the shoulder he landed on.

Sonia and Raket jumped on the alert at this, turning to Cloud and Laya. "Thanks for that." Raket nodded, "Listen, I know how to beat them, they-"

"They're breakable. I know." Cloud nodded.

"We're getting everyone together; it'll be easier to tell who's on which side then." Laya added.

"But, listen," Sonia cut in, "If they crack too much, they'll be destroyed."

"Good to know." Laya said, "we still need to find the other two...that, and our mirrors aren't too far behind."

Mirror Snow had long since lost her version of Dragon Fang but proved to be just as quick as Snow, landing several fierce blows before she was struck by Snow. The real Snow was awe-struck to see that her mirror self had cracked, badly cracked at that. The mirror tigress had quickly retreated into the mirrored floor, disappearing from sight.

Snow dropped her guard and let her sword lower, "Dang...she's tougher that I thought she'd be..." Snow said out loud to herself.

"That would make sense, she _is_ you, after all." Acio's voice came from behind, causing the tigress to jump and spin around. Acio calmly lowered the sword pointed at her, "Calm down, I'm on your side, remember?"

"Yeah...but what do you mean it makes sense she's tough?"

"I just meant that she's you, so naturally you'd both have similar attacks and strengths." the black cat answered matter-of-factly. "Mine retreated too, we should probably be somewhere else before they come back from whatever. Maybe find the others if we can."

Snow nodded and sheathed her weapon, following Acio in silence. It didn't take more than ten minutes for the two miss-matched teams to be reunited and swap information about their enemies.

"Alright, so we should fight someone else's mirror person?" Acio asked as a plan was made.

"Exactly." Raket nodded, "Plus, we already beat their Sonia, so we're up one person over them."

"Maybe, but you've got a problem." Raket's voice came from somewhere near-by in the maze, causing the alertness of the group to increase, scanning around to find where the voice had come from.

"The problem being, we know the plan now." Cloud's counterpart chuckled, appearing from a mirror and landing a knock-out hit on Sonia. "But now we're pretty level." Mirror Cloud caught Raket's scowl and tomcat smirked, "What're you gonna do about it, huh?" She dared.

Raket growled darkly and launched herself at the mirror mobian, who only laughed and stepped back into the mirror, letting the silver hedgehog go face first into the mirror. The remaining mirror mobians stepped from the mirrors, any cracks they may have had already gone.

"The mirrors heal them..." Laya observed.

"Then don't let them get through them." Acio said, shooting an arrow through Mirror Raket, who yelled in surprise before exploding into small crystals of glass, spraying over both groups of mobians.

The mirror mobians stood stunned for a moment. Their faces suddenly darkened, fixing their counterparts with a murderous looks, "Right, no more being nice." Acio's double said in a tone dark enough to match her look. The others nodded in agreement, moving in quickly on their counterparts and already throwing out attacks.

The mobians, all on defense, were backed up to separate sides of the small space. _'They're trying to split us up again.'_ Cloud realized, quickly shoving herself forward, catching Mirror Cloud off-guard and knocked her to the ground. "Everyone, switch!" She ordered, drop-kicking the closest mirror mobian, which happened to be Mirror Snow. Snow took after Mirror Laya, who instantly attacked with a column of fire shooting toward the white tiger; the mobian yelled and dodged to the side.

Laya looked over in time to see this, side stepping away from her battle with Mirror Cloud, sending the Mirror hedge-girl tumbling into the seedrian again. "Not again." Mirror Cloud growled angrily, pushing herself onto her knees, starting a quick exchange of insults with Mirror Laya. The two girls simultaneously yelped as a punch of fire suddenly burned the two, causing both to explode into shards of glass once the heat became too intense.

"Four down, two to go." Laya cheered loud enough for her group to hear.

The five Mobians split into groups to deal with Mirror Acio and Mirror Snow. Mirror Acio growled fiercely, aiming an arrow at the Laya, Cloud and Snow, daring any of the three to come close. Mirror Snow, having her Dragon Fang sword returned, unsheathed it and swung it dangerously close to Raket and Acio. Raket telepathically threw the mirror version of the tigress, hearing the mirror girl shatter in the distance. Acio then shot an arrow flawlessly at her own counterpart, causing the final opponent to shatter into pieces.

**OoOoO**

_Teams 2 and 4_

Most of the mobians didn't hesitate in their counterattacks against the mirror mobians, Anash was going blow-for-blow against his mirror self with his red eyes shifting darker and darker with each strike. The black echidna knocked away a punch, delivering a brutal upper cut in the process. Mirror Anash growled quietly, a hand going automatically to his wound, a large fist-sized crack. "Lucky shot." the mirror echidna hissed, quickly dancing away from the next attack and landing one of his own in Anash's stomach. The black echidna doubled over, grunting quietly as his counter cast a quick glance around; his companions were already drawing their other world selves away from one another. Mirror Anash gasped suddenly when his feet flew out from under him and his back made harsh contact with the floor, earning him yet another crack.

Light's copy followed the yellow fox's move with perfect accuracy and grace, making it virtually impossible for the mobian to place a single hit. Mirror Light swiped away another punch, a grin sneaking over his glassy features. "My turn." The fox said, pulling back a fist and just as quickly knocking the other fox several steps back.

Light coughed, a direct blow to his lungs, "Not bad." He finally got out, "But there's no way you're winning this fight." Light beat his feat against the glass floor and ran circles around his mirror self. The other fox boy seemed confused by this, keeping still in his place. The mobian grinned and cut his run short, head butting his double in the back, surprised when a crack begins to run down the other fox's back, spider-webbing away from the point of impact. "What the...?" Light started, being interrupted when another mobian, Kaity, crashed bodily into him and knocking them both to the ground.

"Hey, nice catch." Kaity grinned, pulling herself to her feet and assisting Light.

Light blinked at her for a moment, the girl already looked like she had been through a tough battle, decorated with cuts, bruises and small signs of exhaustion in her stance. He then looked over her shoulder at the mirror version of the chameleon; cracks webbed around on the mirror mobian, but she still came forward, scowling like a predator about to pounce on prey. "I'm not finished with you." the mirror chameleon hissed in an angry tone.

The other mobian grinned, casting a quick glance at her opponent and back to Light, "S'cuse me a second." She said, spinning on her heels and tackling the other girl, a scowl plastered across her face.

The bright yellow fox felt a sudden, hard whack to his skull and immediately fell to his hands and knees, waiting for his vision to clear up. "Damn, didn't I hit heard enough?" Mirror Light pouted from somewhere outside Light's vision, "Ah well, we'll try again." A hand grabbed the male's shoulder and an elbow contacted his skull hard once again. The fox let out a quiet groan before his senses faded completely.

Mirror Cosmo grinned wickedly, watching her double duck and dodge away from the attacks both of them knew. "What's the matter? Scared I'll whip you?" She cackled, faking a jab and quickly connecting a hard punch with Cosmo's stomach.

Cosmo groaned and crumpled to the ground, doubled over. The seedrian looked up at Mirror Cosmo as she approached for another attack, "Why are you doing this?" she asked.

"Well, it's pretty fun." Mirror Cosmo said snidely, jumping over Cosmo and landing a solid kick to her back, making her cry out in surprised, "That and we were offered a pretty good deal to keep you all out of the way."

Cosmo cast a quick glance around, somehow she had been lured away from the others. She directed her look at her attacker with a confused look. "What do you mean? By who?"

The second Cosmo opened her mouth to answer but stopped, realizing how much she had already given away. "Never you mind." She hissed, kicking the green plant girl again, harder this time. "You just worry about-" The mirror seedrian was interrupted suddenly, gaping in shock at a sudden shard of glass that had broke through her. "W-what...? Where...?" she gasped. Cosmo watched, just a shocked.

"Hey, Seedrian! Take cover!" Anash shouted from his place not too far away, taking down his guard from the explosion of his own copy. Cosmo quickly obeyed when Mirror Cosmo sudden uttered a sharp cry and exploded into tiny shards of glass that littered the floor. Anash recovered first, trekking over the glass, which he noticed was sinking into the mirror floor, to Cosmo still lying still with her hands over her head. The black echidna nudged her with his foot. "Hey, get up, come on, it's over." he said impatiently.

Cosmo got shakily to her feet and looked at Anash, who seemed unfazed by both explosions. "Thank you."

"No problem. We've gotta find the others." The echidna answered, "If these things are us, then we'll have more advantage fighting someone else's copy." With that being said, Anash turned crisply on his heels and started back the way he had come with Cosmo quickly following after him.

Waffle kept her guard up as Mirror Waffle went attack after attack on the mobian. "Come on, it's no fun when you chicken out." Mirror Waffle coaxed with a wicked sneer.

"You know, you remind me of someone else I know." Waffle answered curtly, pulling back an arm to punch, immediately doubling to the ground after a hit was delivered to her rib cage.

"Thank you." Mirror Waffle chuckled, kicking Waffle in the stomach as if the vixen's comment had been an insult.

"Hey! Watch out!" A voice commanded sharply, Mirror Waffle jumped away just in time as a vine constructed from what appeared to be green stained glass shot through the air.

Mirror Waffle threw her arms up and snarled, "What the heck was _that_ for?" She demanded of the owner of the attack, Mirror Sumowa.

"Yeah, don't worry that I just saved you life." Mirror Sumowa snapped, retracting the vine and looking over at Sumowa, who had quite literally jumped away from the attack.

"Hardly!" Mirror Waffle scoffed, "I could've dodged that without your useless warning."

"Oh yeah?" The mirror rainbow seedrian hissed, setting her dark look on Mirror Waffle, who stood her ground against the look.

"Yeah."

"Prove it, then!" Mirror Sumowa shot out another vine, this on bigger, thicker and heading right toward Mirror Waffle. The vixen danced away, charging at Sumowa's counterpart with a fist cocked back. Mirror Sumowa swung the vine and easily sent Mirror Waffle soaring through the air and through one of the mirror walls. Mirror Sumowa laughed triumphantly and turned her attention back to the original seedrian.

Sumowa, finding that she couldn't use her powers in the strange mirror world, dashed forward quickly, ducking her head as she got closer and bashed her mirror self's center into a wide crack. Mirror Sumowa's gasp came out strained, both hands covering over the crack that had been made. Sumowa groan and held her head; the impact had done more damage to her than she thought it would.

Waffle's pain finally subsided and allowed her to sit up, watching with a questioning look when the crack first appeared on the mirror mobian. "Weird..." She muttered quietly, unaware of the mirror vixen quietly rising from the mirrored floor behind her.

The mirror version of Waffle grinned, raising a fist into the air to finish off her copy, looking up suddenly at Sumowa's second gasp and a sudden burst of glass shards. "You idiot!" Mirror Waffle shriek, taking a step back, unfortunately taking a number of projectile shards to her torso. The vine Mirror Sumowa had summoned followed suit of its master, exploding into large, baseball-sized chunks. Mirror Waffle left out a gurgled gasp and fell to her knees, startling Waffle into backing herself from the time bomb that was her copy. Sumowa wisely ducked behind one of the walls of the maze away from the mass explosion. Waffle, who wasn't as fast, felt a solid chunk of glass crash into her head, fading her vision and leaving her limp on the ground, followed almost immediately by the explosion of her mirror double.

After the noise had settled, Sumowa returned and looked around; the glass sank into the floor, but Waffle seemed unharmed. She jumped when a hand came down on her shoulder; she spun to face Anash, Her sister, and Kaity.

"Ya alright?" Kaity asked with a slight grin.

"Yeah. Of course." Sumowa answered quickly, acting as though she watched mobians blow up every day.

"Well, listen; we went through and figured they've probably only got two left. The fox guy is K. somewhere, so that leaves us five against two."

Sumowa glanced back at the unmoving Waffle, "Four against two." She corrected, getting an annoyed look from the black echidna.

"Either way, we've got the advantage." Kaity said, "Kinda." At the questioning looks she got, the chameleon continued, "My double had all these crack on 'er then she jumped into a mirror, ya see? Then she jumped out again a little bit after and she was all fixed."

"The mirrors act as a...place of healing for them?" Cosmo asked.

Kaity nodded, "That's what I'm assumin'."

"Then you're not exactly wrong." Light's voice floated in with a wicked tone to it. The owner of the voice followed the voice out soon after, a wide smirk on his face. "Though I'm pretty sure we've got the advantage."

"Oh yeah?" Anash hissed in a challenging tone. Mirror Light grinned coyly his eyes watching the mirror behind the group. Anash followed the glance, immediately catching Mirror Kaity and throwing her back into the mirror, cracking is with a single punch.

Mirror Kaity stared out, her image broken with the mirror, "Aw damn..." She cursed. As if the mirror had been waiting for the mirror mobian to give her final statement, it fell to the ground, leaving Mirror Light the last opponent for the quartet to fight. Mirror Light's glance flashed to the mirrors around him and back to the four her found were advancing on him.

"Grab 'im before 'e goes through!" Kaity yelled, tackling the yellow mirror fox and holding him in a tight bear hug.

Sumowa and Cosmo couldn't help but chuckle. Anash however, seemed all business, striding calmly over to the caught mirror mobian, his red eyes darkening a shade. "Just toss him, I'll take care of it." he commanded. Kaity's expression suggested she didn't like the notion of being told what to do, but after a moment shoved mirror Light to the side, sending him stumbling one awkward foot over the other. The black echidna quickly dashed forward and broke through the other male easily, backing up just in time to cover himself from the explosion of glass.

**Actually, I'm thinking of just putting in a filler chapter next to kind of set the stage for the final boss...**


	22. The Final Problem: Part One

**Yes! An update, finally! So, this is really just setting the stage again, for the real fight...I figure maybe two chapters left, then this is all wrapped up. Are you as physced as I am about that? =D**

Chapter 22: The Final Problem: Part One

There was a sudden, blinding flash of bright light both groups were met with after the final Mirror Mobian was beaten. When the Mobians opened their eyes, they were surprised to not only find that their groups had been reunited, but that the scenery had changed drastically. In this new area, they stood outside on charred ground, as if a battle had taken place with laser weapons; trees had been shot to stumps, rocks in hundreds of pieces and still smoking for whatever had hit them. The twelve mobians could hear water crashing against rocks somewhere close by.

Cloud stepped further out than the rest of the group, looking around cautiously. "Where are we now?" She asked, though the question was not directed at anyone.

"Looks like some kinda battlefield." Kaity answered, going out a bit farther than the cobalt hedge-girl. "And it looks like there's a cliff not too far from here." the girl walked on, followed by several other wary but curious mobians and peered over the edge of a cliff set twenty feet from the group's landing spot.

Racket looked down and whistled, "Pretty steep drop." He noted, watching a wave crash harshly against the rock, knocking a few small bit loose.

"No kidding, that first step's a doozy." Light agreed, leaning over the edge to get a better view.

"If we were all brought here, something big is about to happen." Anash said gravely.

As if giving Anash an answer, the ground beneath the mobians shook roughly and with surprising loudness. Raket quickly pulled his fox friend away from the ledge before he slipped over the ledge. "What's going on?" The silver hedgehog shouted over the noise.

"Something's happening!" Waffle shouted back, scrambling away from a falling rock that was big enough to crush her.

"Thanks fer the update, Capt'n Obvious!" Kaity snapped at her friend, leaping out of the way of a falling tree.

A loud cracking sound accompanied the rumbling and noise, slowly ripping the ground in two parts. Acio, being unfortunate enough to be teetering on that line, struggled to regain her balance from the rough shaking and movement of the ground. The black cat gave only a small cry before gravity took hold and sent her in a free fall down.

Anash darted forward, snatching the Spirit guardian's hand in the nick of time. The cat swayed a little before being completely aware of the events that had just befallen her and allowed her echidna savior to pull her away from the widening trench in the ground. "There's...something down there." Acio reported, resisting curiosity.

"Whatever it is, it's probably what's causing this earthquake." Laya pointed out, holding tightly to Sumowa, who held both her and her sisters up straight with protective vines that the rainbow seedrian had summoned.

As if confirming Laya's thoughts, a large metallic blur broke free from the rip in the ground and landed with a hard _crash_ on the ground. Several of the mobians screamed in either fear or amusement as the landing of their next opponent launched the twelve into the air. Most landed gracefully, even after the launch, others weren't as lucky.

Cosmo, still in the grip of her older sister, floated gently to the ground with Laya and Sumowa. She was the first to see their foe; the creature, standing about ten stories high, was made of a metallic blue with angry red eyes glowing on a black background of sclera. The green seedrian at first mistook the creature for a giant ant; its body was composed of three different spheres, one for its head, another acting as a body with small but thick arms that at times seemed to have a mind of their own along with a multitude of wires running from its back into the tear in the earth it had come from, and a bottom sphere with legs similar to the arms and covered by the same metallic blue metal the rest of the creature was made from, acting as armor. "What kind of creature is that...?" Cosmo gasped quietly.

"I'll bet it's Eggman's." Sonia growled. "We've beat him up to this point, so we'll beat this thing easy."

"So let's get it, then." Snow said, drawing her sword and holding it front of her protectively.

"Hang on." Cloud said cautiously, putting out an arm to bar the way of anyone trying to rush forward, "It's doing something..."

The mobians looked and, true to Cloud's words, the creature curled up as if it had an upset stomach and made a few mechanical squeaks and squeals. One of the wires connected to its back lit as energy flowed through it, accompanied by a loud, ear-shattering cry of pain. Raket's ears perked, recognizing the voice immediately, "That's Sonic!"

"He's hurting him!" Sonia cried, trying to push Cloud's arm from her way. The hedge-girl swept Sonia's feet out from under her.

"We don't know what it's doing. We have to be careful." She warned, not wanting to admit her concern for the male hedgehog.

"It's changing itself..." Sumowa said, pointing in astonishment at the creature.

The creature's metal blue exterior melted away like hot wax, moving and reforming into a hedgehog-shaped head and body. Its muzzle turned into a grey metal with a pointed nose matching in color and not looked uncannily like the hero of Mobius. The Sonic copy now eyed the group standing ready to fight. "I _am_ dis_appo_int_ed_." it said, struggling between a robotic and more natural voice, "_When I_ captured the _best _of _Mobius' fighters_, I had as_sum_ed I would be _given mo_re of a _chall_enge to ret_rieve_ them."

Light's ears folded back and a skeptical look suddenly appeared, "Wait a second...is that...?"

"Metal Sonic." Raket finished.

"So 'e's the one who kidnapped the Chaotix?" Kaity growled, "_And_ led us on some stupid chase 'round these pointless zones?"

"_Ind_eed I did." Metal Sonic replied, "And I _am less tha_n impressed wi_th the progre_ss of t_he new So_nic Hero_es_."

"Sonic Heroes?" Waffle repeated, her head cocking to one side questioningly.

"Please release them!" Cosmo pleaded, "They've done nothing to deserve whatever you've done to them!"

"But t_hey have_." Metal replied, "But _I grow tir_ed of your _talking; you_r friends and the_ir abilit_ies are now mi_ne to cont_rol."

"Not if we can help it." Laya bristled; skirting around Cloud's arm.

"Yer not beatin' 'im without lettin' me take a few swings." Kaity shouted after the orange seedrian, roughly elbowing Cloud out of her path as she and Laya charged at their opponent.

**Battle time! =D Also, since I didn't make any indication of it anywhere else, the italics of metal talking is when he sounds more robotic, and the normal is when he sounds more...normal =3 Hope you enjoyed the chapter =D 'cause it'll probably be a while until the next one...**


	23. The Final Problem: Part Two

**Almost done! =D I'm thinking maybe one or two more chapters...so then I can finally move on to _Sonic Schooled_ and all the other stuff I've been holding off on =D**

Chapter 23: The Final Problem: Part Two

Metal Sonic let out a dry laugh, watching the two small mobians charge at him. "_Fooli_sh creatu_res_." A shock of power shot through another of the wires, this time Amy's yell penetrated the air. Metal Sonic's arms suddenly took a life of their own; twisting and forming themselves into the familiar shape of Amy's Piko Piko hammer. Metal swung the hammer high into the air and brought it down just as swiftly.

"Laya!" Sumowa and Cosmo shrieked in unison.

"Hey! Hammer coming! Move!" Light shouted, dashing off after the two girls. Both of which kept on track, despite the hammer threat casting a shadow over them. The yellow fox snatched Laya off the ground, she was lighter to carry, and pulled the second girl away by the base of her horn.

Immediately after the trio arrived back at the group, Kaity smacked Light's hand off her horn and scowled, "What'd ya do that for?" She demanded.

"You know, where I'm from, we usually say some form of 'thank you' when someone saves us." Light returned with crossed arms.

Kaity let out an irritated huff and turned her attention back to the monster before them.

"Attacking straight-forward _isn't_ working here." Cloud said matter-of-factly, stepping between Light and Kaity before either could start a fight. "What we need is a strategy."

"If you come up with one, let us know." Waffle said bitterly; "That thing's huge."

Snow nodded in agreement, "She's right, it would probably see us no matter what angle we came from."

"That didn't stop your friend." The hedge girl countered coolly.

Waffle scowled and mumbled something under her breath. Sonia stepped up, "While it isn't _impossible_ to sneak up on Metal Sonic, it probably will be hard."

Her silver companion nodded, "If he's got Mobius' best fighters as an energy source, then he'll be pretty tough."

"As soon as we find out who he's got; that could help our chances." Sumowa said.

"There's about twelve wires in his back, so there has to be at least twelve." Anash pointed out.

"We know 'e's got Sonic, and Amy." Kaity started, counting off on her fingers, "And unless Waffle, Snow and I got off on the wrong track, 'e's got Espio, Vector and Charmy too."

"If he's got Sonic, he's probably got Tails." Laya added, "That's already half of them!"

"From what we can assume." Cloud said curtly. "We only know two for sure."

"Then we find a way for him to show us more of them." Light said, "If we all attack in a different way, he'll probably use a different attack."

The twelve mobians looked skeptically back at their opponent, who hadn't made a move to attack them. "...We have to try." Cosmo said quietly, "It'll work...it just has to."

**OoOoO**

After several attempts to break though Metal Sonic's defenses, the "new" Sonic Heroes had counted seven different captives; Sonic, Amy, Tails, Espio, Vector, Knuckles, and Omega. "That leaves about five left." Acio counted, keeping tight with the other eleven mobians as a shower of missiles rained down around them. Omega never _did_ have great aim.

"Or, we can figure it ourselves." Kaity replied; "'E said somethin' 'bout a Sonic Heroes, or whatever. If we figure out who was the original, then we've probably got 'em all figured out."

"Knuckles is obviously there." Cloud said, "I've never known him to leave his post unless it was something serious."

"And how long've ya known 'im?" Kaity smirked. The hedge girl was silent, giving the younger mobian a scrutinizing glare.

"Four left, then." Snow cut in, "If he's got Omega, he's probably got the rest of his posse too; which leaves only two left."

"Come to think of it," Cosmo said, jumping a little as a missile landed uncomfortably close to her and her sisters, "I didn't see Cream before this whole thing started...is it possible Metal has her also?"

"A sweet girl like her?" Sonia asked in a surprised tone, "I've never even heard her raise her voice before."

"Then again, you haven't seen much of her." Light added with a pleased smile, despite Sonia's acidic glare.

"One way to find out..." Raket said, quickly hopping over their cover and dashing toward their enemy.

"Raket! No!" Sonia cried, one arm out after the hedgehog as if it would bring him back.

Metal Sonic's LED lighted eyes focused on the telekinetic hedgehog charging after him; he didn't seem too much of a threat, not with all the power the metal creation possessed now. Metal Sonic's arm melted and twisted into a gun and aimed carefully at the silver hedgehog approaching. "_Fa_rewel_l, hedge_hog." he said, launching a bullet.

To Raket, the bullet was roughly the same size as a soccer mom van. He stopped dead in his tracks to look at the on-coming bullet; stopping something that big and that fast wouldn't be easy. Even with telekinetics. That didn't stop him from trying, though; with both arms out in front of him, Raket concentrated on the projectile and was pleased to see the thin layer of blue glowing around it and it slow stop in midair. With loud cheers from his fellow fighters, Raket carefully lowered the live ammo to the ground.

"_To stop o_ne attack," Metal scowled, "_does not ma_ke you triumph_ant_."

The ground rumbled roughly; several of the better-trained mobians dove for the ground as soon as the shaking began, others staggered to hold their balance.

"What's happening?" Waffle cried, one of the mobians struggling with her balance; she promptly fell on her backside.

"Something's about to happen." Cloud called from her position on the ground, "Something bad."

And, as the Guardian of Light had predicted, something _did_ happen; the tear in the ground widened, letting up whatever the wires in Metal Sonic were attached to. What the mobians saw were twelve half-spherical capsules, containing the ten mobians that had already guessed along with Cream and Big. The capsules rose up and carefully connected to the metallic monster; each time the blue metal of Metal Sonic's body melting, moving and reforming to hold the capsules firmly in place around the robot's body. Most of the mobians were placed on Metal's upper of lower body, sometimes separate and sometimes in clusters. The only one not in that group was Sonic, who was on Metal Sonic's head, as if he were the very mind of the robot as it once again took it's form of the blue blur.

"Well, we see them all now." Anash said curtly, "What now?"

"We fight. Duh." Kaity replied, rolling her eyes.

"Can't we just break them out?" Laya asked, pointing to the capsules, "They don't look too tough."

"We can try." Sumowa agreed.

"It'll be like a prison break...only there's no prison." Light added; pleased with the few smirks and chuckles he received.

Sonia seemed less than impressed with the joke, "Right...we'll need a way to break through those capsules if we can." The orchid hedgehog smiled, "And I think I know a way."

**Can't think of much to say here =3 ...except maybe 'cookies' =D**


	24. The Final Problem: Part Three

**Ohmichaos, I feel so proud right now! =D I'm finally finished with _OC Heroes_! I'm so happy I can finally put 'complete' next to this!**

Chapter 24: The Final Problem: Part Three

"If we can break though the capsules holding Sonic and everyone, we should be able to power down Metal." Sonia said, keeping cover behind a rock in case of an attack.

"That entry we found _did_ say they were acting as a sort of battery." Racket noted, remembering back to the beginning of their adventure.

Everyone but the members of Team Raket shared a confused look. Kaity was the first to clue in the trio about this; "Yeah, um...what?" She said, giving them a look.

The orchid hedge girl went a shade of red, suddenly realizing that she, Raket and Light were the only ones to know about the entry. "Long story short," Light started before Sonia could, "We broke into Eggman's base, made it go boom, and found a creepy entry."

"Yeah, that's...that's about it." Raket agreed, giving his friend a strange glance.

"So, we get 'em out and Metal shuts down?" Kaity asked.

"Well, he may have some back-up generator, anyway." Cloud shrugged, "I'm sure a robot could have enough foresight to think of something like that."

"Let's test it, then." Laya grinned, her hands flaring to life with flames. The seedrian's sisters quickly took hold of her before the youngest member of their team could act.

"It could be dangerous." Sonia said thoughtfully, "We'll need a distraction or something to hold him off while the rest of us free the others."

"Shouldn't be too hard." Anash huffed, "Let's get this over with, already."

**OoOoO**

After splitting off into their groups the first team, the distraction, leapt from their hiding places and charged full-force at the metal monster in front of them.

"_Do you_ organi_cs not le_arn from p_ast mi_stakes?" Metal Sonic laughed dryly. A loud, pained scream ripped from Vector's throat and the metal creature the team was charging at slowly melted and formed to take on the features of a crocodile; an enlonged, metallic blue snout, dazzlingly sharp teeth, and a dangerous tail with sharp spikes ever few feet.

"Watch out fer the tail." Kaity, one of the few in the distraction group, instructed. As if on cue, the massive tail swung toward the small group. The four mobians; Anash, Laya, Kaity and Light, barely managed to dive away from the tail as it swung, easily knocking over anything that stood in its way.

"Yeesh…" Snow grimaced from her position with the second group of mobians; Metal's tail did worse damage than Vector's ever could have. "He's gonna be tough."

"No kidding." Sonia answered, a hint of worry in her tone. "Come on, looks like we can catch him off guard if we go around his left side." So, one by one, the eight mammals went quickly around Metal's blind side as the other four taunted, jabbed at, and kept Metal's attention as well as they could.

Cloud looked up at the monstrous machine in front of her; the closest prisoners were Rouge and Big. "If we're careful, we can probably get a few of them out before Metal notices us." The cobalt hedgie noted.

"Unless he can somehow _feel_ when they're taken." Raket pointed out.

"We have to try." Cosmo said, starting carefully toward the robot. "If we can break though as Sonia said, defeating Metal should be easy…"

Acio pulled an arrow from her quiver, and set it in place on her bow. The black cat aimed high at another of the imprisoned mobians, "We might have better luck if we get the stronger ones out first." She suggested, letting the arrow fly toward Knuckles. The arrow imbedded itself firmly into the echidna's capsule, creating a spider web of cracks that ran from it.

The hit seemed to get Metal's attention suddenly, whipping around to deal with the bigger group of mobians. The other four barely moved before Metal's crocodile tail struck their much smaller forms and sent to flying bodily through the air.

Anash landed gracefully on the ground, wiping nonexistent dust off his leather jacket. The black echidna suddenly collapsed to the ground, his red eyes zeroed in on Laya with a growl.

"…Be on the lookout for flying seedrians." She chirped in response to the glare, quickly lifting herself back to her feet and joining the new fight that had erupted during their flights.

**OoOoO**

The battle was already underway as the last four Mobians join in; Metal's shifting was no longer limited to just one of the 12 fighters that had beaten him before. His tail remained as Vector's, but his fists had taken on the same pointed characteristics of Knuckles', Rouge's wings had sprouted onto his back, allowing him to hover over the smaller beings, occasionally Amy's hammer or a ninja star from Espio would create craters around the mobians.

But already Big and Cream were rescued by Team Earthia, though neither were conscious at the time of the rescue. Both mobians were set aside thanks to a certain silver hedgehog's powers and kept in the safety of a telekinetic barrier by him. Metal's hammer copy came down on the barrier, but it held firm. As the battle raged with both sides taking high damage, Charmy, Tails and O-mega joined the two peace-loving mobians in their small zone of protection.

Knuckles was nearly free; anyone just glancing could guess one more strong hit would free him. Cloud, with flawless accuracy, smashed through the barrier holding Amy back. The pick hedgehog's limp form how quickly hustled over to the others.

"Watch out!" Waffle shouted as a shower of ninja stars suddenly rained down on the fighters.

"Okay, we gotta get Espio out," Kaity proclaimed, dancing away from a few close-calls. "Otherwise, 'e'll keep pushin' us back with this."

"Agreed." Sumowa nodded, keeping her and her sisters safe the best she can with a thick vine she summoned.

"Hold that pose, then." The chameleon responded, climbing up the vine as quick as she could. Understanding the plan, the rainbow seedrian lifted the vine higher.

Metal Sonic zeroed in on the detective lifting with the vine and, reading the intentions, swiped at the teen with a massive fist. "I wi_ll not lo_se to childi_sh plans_." The robot growled. The fist connected with its target and sent her into a nosedive, but not before said target managed to hurl out two small ninja stars of her own. Both weapons planted firmly into the glass casing around Espio.

Metal's quick moment of triumph lasted only a few seconds; the ninja stars that hand lodged themselves into the capsule exploded, making the robot roar in surprise and stagger back. The male chameleon shook loose from the sudden staggering and was unknowingly in his own free fall toward the ground. Metal had a small shred of hope that both chameleons would hit the ground and lessen his opponents, but he was denied that also when the same vine that had carried Kaity came back and coiled around both chameleons, bringing them safely to the ground.

"That was _awesome_!" Kaity whooped, still upside down in the plant's hold.

"It did look kind of fun." The seedrian admitted with a small grin, carefully releasing the chameleon girl then the boy. "Get him over to Raket, quick."

"Five to go!" Light called over the noise of the battle.

**OoOoO**

True to though, Knuckles was saved with one final attack, thanks to Light and Sonia's quick thinking. Sonic's roboic copy was suddenly on guard after that, apparently counting his losses once his fists were taken. With a bit more difficulty, the blue robot was grounded after Rouge's release and lost more than three quarters his power once Vector's holding cell was bashed and broken.

"We've got Sonic and Shadow left." Snow announced as the opponent shot down a rain of Chaos Spear.

"Screw Shadow, let's get Sonic and leave." Waffle said with a hiss. Kaity laughed and slapped her on the back approvingly.

Cloud didn't seem as impressed with the vixen's comment. "Sonic will be the hardest to reach. We should try and get Shadow first." She commented.

Laya grinned, "I got an idea. I just need to get up by Shadow." The little seedrian turned to her sister with a look as if to say 'help a sister out?'.

The oldest seedrian's initial look was 'no way', but after a moment sighed. "Fine…but be _careful_." She summoned a vine, being sure it was extra thick and strong/

"I'm always careful." Laya hopped onto the vine, watching it contort to act as a barrier around the controller's littlest sister and was finally on her way up.

"We've got to keep him busy." Snow said, quickly thrusting her sword at Metal to gain his attention. It worked. He snarled viciously as the word made contact with the side of head massive head; a blow that would kill any mortal, and turned his head slowly to look at his attacker.

Sonia kneeled on one leg, taking sharp aim with her keyboard rifle and fired away at Metal Sonic. He roared and swung down at the Mobians, who quickly scattered like ants under a magnifying glass. "Charge!" The orchid hedgehog shouted, leading a sudden attack, en masse, on the metallic creature.

Laya, meanwhile, was finally face-to-face with Shadow; her hands had slowly been heating to the temperature she would need to make the plan work. She aimed both arms in front of her, took a quick breath and blasted as the glass. Metal was preoccupied with the tiny resistance so took no notice. Not long later, the fire's heat send shards of glass flying, but opened an ideally big way to pull the black and red hedgehog through.

**OoOoO**

Metal felt his power plummet again; his internal data informed him that unit 7, A.K.A. Shadow, had been broken and powered down. The robot cursed the existence of the organics attacking him. Even with Unit One still in place, his power and fighting levels had all dropped below fifty percent.

He knew now it was only a matter of time before his counterpart was taken and his power exterminated, so the robot pulled out his final trick; without Shadow, the effects would not last as long, but still long enough to all him more time to replenish his power.

"**_Ch_aos Cont_rol!_**" He bellowed, watching in the next instant as the Mobians he had been fighting stood still; or at least went slower. The metal monster calculated he had ninety seconds to replenish his power. He could work with that.

For that span of time, his calculating nature kicked in, allowing him to take educated guesses on where each mobians would land and what would be an appropriate counter for it.

**OoOoO**

Chaos Control stopped and Metal set to action; the group of Cosmo, her sisters, and Waffle were swept aside easily and were stopped only by the barrier protecting the original Sonic Heroes. Next; Cloud, Anash, Kaity and Light were swept away and nearly over the edge of the cliff they had been examining in the beginning. That left only Acio, Snow and Sonia, who had all spread out at once, going against what Metal Sonic had guessed.

Not that it mattered.

The three girls were thrown to the ground after another shock of Chaos Spear surrounded them.

"'E leaves fer, like, a minute and suddenly 'e's got a plan?" Kaity fumed, kicking the cliff side wildly in an attempt to pull herself up, it had almost a comical effect.

Anash was the only one who openly laughed at the girl's attempts, Light and Cloud hefted her back onto solid land. "He's got Sonic, so he's got Chaos Control." Light said. "Once we get Sonic, this is all over with."

"Yes, but he'll be more on guard than ever." Cloud answered, "We need more people than we have."

The sentence made the mobians stop and look at one another; why hadn't they thought of this before?

"…Race you over." Light said quickly, beginning in a dash toward his silver companion holding up the force field as if it had only been seconds since he started it. "Anyone awake in there?" The bright yellow fox shouted as he approached.

"We kinda need back up, here." Kaity yelled after, though she was much farther back than Light was.

Something about their shouting seemed to spark in the fallen heroes, because all but the recently rescued Shadow opened their eyes.

Knuckles was the first one on his feet and looking around, "Where are we?" He demanded sharply.

"Relax, Knuckles." Tails said, getting to his feet after overcoming vertigo, "We're away from Metal, that's what's important right now."

"Everyone but Sonic." Raket replied, gratefully dropping the shield "Metal still has him."

Amy growled, her green eyes suddenly flaring to life at the mention of her crush in peril. "So what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Like a train, Amy forced anyone that dared stand between her and her target out of the way.

"You guys did good, sit this one out," Vector said with a grin, "We've got ya covered."

"Charge!" Charmy yipped happily, joining the Calvary charge to defeat the metallic blue monster in front of them.

**OoOoO**

After the captured mobians took over the battle, it was an easy win; Sonic was released and Metal Sonic once again sent packing. Both groups of mobians reunited with their friends, either talking about their adventure to that point or listening in interest or awe.

Sonic, still wary and weak, did nothing as Amy clung happily to him. But the blue hedgehog managed a smile once the stories were told, "Well, if we ever need a back up team, we know where to find one." Sonic said with a grin, "Sonic Heroes; the second edition."

**Yes, the ending sucks, but it's all done now! =D Now I can move on to _Sonic Schooled_ and spend some ungodly amount of time on that too. =w=**

**Anyway, hope you liked it!**


End file.
